Hi,
My wife and I have an EPOA for my elderly mother who is about to enter aged care, my question is can someone manipulate her into making a new will whilst in Aged care to exclude us from the existing will? This happened to my wifes family and therefore I trust nobody.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Sandy, Thank you for your question. It is our understanding that an enduring power of attorney (or even an EPOA) is a formal document that appoints a trusted person such as a family member or friend (referred to as the attorney) to make financial, legal and property decisions on another’s behalf in the event where that person loses the mental capacity to do so themselves. The key part in all of that is ‘if a person loses the mental capacity to do so themselves.’ Here is what we say about ‘capacity’ on our site. What is ‘capacity’? We make decisions for ourselves all our adult lives and we expect to continue to make our own decisions, regardless of our age. But there are some situations and certain kinds of decisions where it may not be possible; particularly if we become unwell. In legal terms, your ability to make important decisions yourself is referred to as your capacity. You are considered to have the capacity to make decisions if you can:- one main choices- weigh up the consequences of the choices- understand how the consequences affect you and:- communicate your decision. Whether or not you have capacity to make a decision can obviously depend on a variety of factors including the kind of decision it is. It is rare for someone to not have capacity for any decision making at all usually only if they are unconscious or have a severe cognitive disability. You can read more about it here: How do I get legal permission to act on someone’s behalf? | agedcare101 We hope this background information helps.