Aged Care
Enduring Power of Attorney in Queensland: A Family Guide for Aged Care (2026)
When a parent starts needing aged care, decisions come thick and fast: signing agreements, paying fees, dealing with the family home and making health choices. If your parent can no longer make those decisions, someone needs the legal authority to make them. In Queensland, the document that gives that authority is an Enduring Power of Attorney.
This guide explains how an enduring power of attorney works in QLD, which forms to use, how to sign it correctly, when the powers start, and exactly how it is used when a parent moves into aged care. It also covers what happens if your parent has already lost capacity and has no EPOA in place.
IN SHORT: An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) is a legal document made under Queensland’s Powers of Attorney Act 1998. It lets your parent appoint one or more trusted adults, called attorneys, to make financial, personal and health decisions for them. Unlike a general power of attorney, it keeps working if your parent loses the capacity to decide for themselves. It can only be made while your parent still has capacity, which is why planning early matters so much.
Why an EPOA Matters Before Aged Care
Moving into residential aged care involves several legal and financial steps. If your parent can make their own decisions, they sign everything themselves, and you can support them. But many people move into care after a fall, an illness or a hospital stay, when their capacity may already be affected.
Without an EPOA, families can find they have no authority to sign an aged care agreement, access bank accounts to pay fees, or sell a home to pay an accommodation deposit. Fixing that through a tribunal takes time, often at the very moment a family needs to act quickly, such as when a parent is waiting in hospital for an aged care place.
General vs Enduring Power of Attorney
General power of attorney
- Financial matters only
- Useful for short periods, such as travel
- Stops working if capacity is lost
Enduring Power of Attorney
- Financial, personal and health matters
- Designed for long-term planning
- Keeps working if capacity is lost
Enduring Power of Attorney QLD Forms
An EPOA in Queensland must be made on the approved form. The forms are free from the Queensland Government publications website. The forms were updated on 30 November 2020, but an EPOA made on the older forms before that date is still valid.
FORM 2 · Short form
For simpler appointments, such as appointing the same attorney or attorneys for all matters.
FORM 3 · Long form
For more detailed arrangements, such as different attorneys for different types of decisions.
FORM 9 · Explanatory guide
The official guide to read before completing an EPOA.
FORM 6 · Revocation
Used to cancel an existing EPOA.
Choosing the Right Attorney
The attorney will be trusted with your parent’s money, home and health care, so the choice deserves careful thought. A good attorney is someone who:
- your parent trusts completely, and who understands their values and wishes
- is organised and comfortable keeping financial records
- lives close enough, or is available enough, to deal with aged care homes, banks and doctors
- can work calmly with other family members
Appointing two attorneys can share the load and provide a check on each other, but it can also slow decisions if they must always act together. Some families appoint one attorney for financial matters and another for personal and health matters, which requires the long form. It can also help to name a successive attorney who steps in if the first cannot act.
How to Make an Enduring Power of Attorney in Queensland
01. Talk about wishes
Discuss who your parent trusts, what decisions matter most to them, and any limits or instructions they want included.
02. Choose the attorneys
Attorneys must be adults with capacity. Your parent can appoint more than one and say whether they must act together, separately, or by majority.
03. Complete the right form
Use Form 2 or Form 3, reading the Form 9 guide first. Include any conditions or limits on the attorneys’ powers.
04. Sign in front of an eligible witness
Your parent signs in front of an eligible witness, such as a justice of the peace, commissioner for declarations, lawyer or notary public. The witness must also certify that your parent appeared to have capacity.
05. Attorneys accept the appointment
Each attorney signs the acceptance section before they can act.
Important: An enduring power of attorney in Queensland must be signed on paper and in person. Remote or video witnessing is not available for an EPOA. Using a justice of the peace as the witness is free, while lawyers charge for advice and preparation.
When Do the Attorney’s Powers Start?
Financial matters
Start at the time your parent chooses in the document, such as straight away or only if they lose capacity. If no time is stated, the power starts once the EPOA is made.
Personal and health matters
Only start when your parent has impaired capacity for that particular decision. While they can decide, they decide.
These rules come from the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which also notes that a person can revoke an EPOA and make a new one at any time while they have capacity.
How an EPOA Works With an Advance Health Directive
An EPOA and an Advance Health Directive do different jobs. The EPOA appoints people to make decisions for your parent. The Advance Health Directive records your parent’s own directions about future health care, such as treatments they would or would not want. Having both is ideal: the directive tells everyone what your parent wants, and the health attorney makes any decisions it does not cover. Aged care homes and hospitals will ask for copies of both.
Using an Enduring Power of Attorney in Aged Care
This is where an EPOA does its most important work. Here is how attorneys typically use it when a parent moves into an aged care home.
Choosing a home
Where your parent lives is a personal matter, so a personal attorney can make this decision if your parent cannot, guided by their known wishes.
Signing agreements
An attorney can sign the service agreement and accommodation agreement on your parent’s behalf. See our guide to the resident agreement.
Paying fees
A financial attorney can manage bank accounts to pay the basic daily fee, means tested contributions and accommodation costs.
Accommodation payment
Choosing between a refundable accommodation deposit, a daily payment or a mix is a major financial decision for the attorney.
Health care
A health attorney can consent to treatment and help plan end of life care, guided by any Advance Health Directive.
Centrelink and My Aged Care
These need their own arrangements, such as a Centrelink nominee. See our guide to managing a parent’s aged care paperwork.
Give the aged care home a certified copy of the EPOA before moving in, so staff know who can make decisions and sign documents. Keep the original in a safe place, and give certified copies to the bank, the GP and any other organisation the attorney will deal with regularly.
Can an Attorney Sell the Family Home?
Yes, a financial attorney can deal with property if the EPOA allows it, for example to sell a home to help pay for aged care. But in Queensland, if the attorney is buying or selling real estate, the EPOA must first be registered with Titles Queensland. An EPOA that only covers personal or health matters cannot be registered for this purpose.
Selling the home also affects aged care fees and the Age Pension, so get financial advice first. Our guide to what happens to your home when you go into aged care explains how the home is treated.
What an Attorney Can and Cannot Do
An attorney can
- Manage money and pay bills
- Sign aged care agreements
- Make personal and health decisions when capacity is impaired
- Deal with property, if registered for real estate
An attorney cannot
- Make, change or revoke your parent’s will
- Use your parent’s money for their own benefit
- Ignore your parent’s known views and wishes
- Make personal decisions while your parent can still decide
Your Duties as an Attorney
Being an attorney is a legal responsibility, not just a family favour. Attorneys must act honestly and carefully, in their parent’s interests, and involve their parent in decisions as much as possible. Good practice includes:
- keeping your parent’s money separate from your own
- keeping records and receipts of every transaction
- avoiding conflicts of interest
- considering your parent’s views, values and wishes
The Office of the Public Guardian can investigate concerns, and it can suspend some or all of an attorney’s powers if it suspects on reasonable grounds that the attorney is not competent. ADA Australia also offers free resources for attorneys in Queensland.
Common Mistakes Families Make
Leaving it too late. Once capacity is lost, an EPOA can no longer be made.
Using the wrong form or witness. An EPOA that is not on the approved form, or not properly witnessed, may not be accepted.
Not telling the attorneys. Attorneys must accept the role, and they need to know where the original document is kept.
Forgetting to register for property. If the family home may need to be sold, register the EPOA with Titles Queensland before it is needed.
What If Your Parent Has No EPOA?
If your parent has already lost capacity and never made an EPOA, there are still options, but they are slower.
Health care decisions
A statutory health attorney can usually decide. This is generally a spouse or partner, then an unpaid carer, then a close relative or friend, and if none is available, the Public Guardian.
Personal decisions, such as where to live
The family may need to apply to QCAT for a guardian to be appointed.
Financial decisions
The family may need to apply to QCAT for an administrator to manage money and property.
Planning Ahead for Aged Care
An EPOA is one of the most useful things a family can put in place before aged care. Superior Care Group is a family-owned aged care provider that has cared for older Queenslanders for over 45 years, with residences at Wellington Point and on the Gold Coast. When families are preparing for a move, our team can explain which documents we need to see. Our aged care admission documents checklist is a good place to start.
Preparing for a move into aged care?
Wellington Park (07) 3822 1876 · Merrimac Park (07) 5618 1111
Sources: QCAT: Enduring power of attorney · Compass: Enduring power of attorney in Queensland · Compass: EPOA checklist (QLD) · ADA Australia · Powers of Attorney Act 1998 (Qld). General information only, not legal advice.
