You have been appointed as attorney: your duties in Queensland

When your power starts

For financial matters, the document may say the power begins immediately, on a stated date, or when the principal loses capacity. For personal and health matters, the power can only begin when the principal loses capacity for that decision. Check the document before you act — using a power that has not started is itself a breach.

Capacity is decision-specific and can fluctuate. A person may be unable to manage a property sale but perfectly able to decide where they live and what they eat. You must support them to make their own decisions wherever they can.

Your core duties

These are the obligations that come up most often in disputes we see.

• Act honestly and with reasonable diligence to protect the principal's interests
• Keep the principal's property completely separate from your own — never mix funds in a joint account for convenience
• Keep and preserve accurate records and accounts of all dealings and transactions
• Avoid conflict transactions unless the document or QCAT authorises them
• Apply the General Principles: presume capacity, respect the person's views, use the least restrictive option
• Keep other appointed attorneys informed and consult them where you are appointed jointly
• Maintain confidentiality about the principal's affairs

Conflict transactions, gifts and loans

A conflict transaction is one where your duty to the principal conflicts with your own interests or those of your relatives or business associates — buying the principal's car, renting their house to your daughter, or lending yourself money. These are prohibited unless the enduring power of attorney expressly authorises them or QCAT approves them in advance.

Gifts are narrowly limited: an attorney may make a gift of a nature the principal made when they had capacity, or a gift to a charity the principal supported, and only if the value is reasonable given the size of the estate. Continuing Grandma's $50 birthday cheques is fine. Distributing 'early inheritances' to the family is not.

Selling the home and paying for aged care

Selling the principal's house is one of the highest-risk decisions an attorney makes. It usually needs to be considered against the ademption problem: if the house is specifically gifted in the principal's will and you sell it, the gift may fail and the intended beneficiary can receive nothing. Take legal advice on the will before you list the property.

Aged care funding decisions — refundable accommodation deposit versus daily payment, whether to keep or rent the former home — carry means-testing and pension consequences that should be modelled before a contract is signed, not afterwards.

Record keeping that protects you

Assume that one day you will have to explain every transaction to a court, a sibling or the Public Guardian. A simple system is enough: a dedicated account in the principal's name, a spreadsheet of income and expenditure, receipts kept for anything substantial, and a short file note explaining each unusual decision at the time you make it.

• An opening statement of assets and liabilities when you start acting
• Bank statements filed continuously — banks purge older records
• Receipts and invoices for care, repairs and major purchases
• Notes of the reasons for significant decisions, and who you consulted

When something goes wrong

If you suspect a co-attorney is misusing funds, or if a family member is pressuring you, get advice early. QCAT can review an appointment, order accounts, remove an attorney and order compensation. The Public Guardian can investigate allegations of abuse, neglect or exploitation. Attorneys who resign properly, in writing and with the records in order, are in a far stronger position than those who simply stop acting.

Frequently asked questions