Who would you trust to take over your financial and medical decision-making if you were mentally incapacitated?
To mark Brain Awareness Month, the Public Trust is encouraging New Zealand families to think about signing an Enduring Power of Attorney (ePA).
Public Trust Chief Executive Glenys Talivai Photo: Public Trust
This document - in which you name a person who will have the power to act and make decisions on your behalf - is arguably as important as a will, says Public Trust Chief Executive Glenys Talivai, yet only 17 percent of New Zealanders have ePAs in place.
In New Zealand, there are two kinds of ePA - for property and personal care - which can be held by two different people.
Personal care ePAs come into effect when someone is deemed by a medical doctor or the family court to be 'mentally incapacitated', Talivai says.
Property ePAs can come into effect while a person has full mental capacity yet has some reason for wishing another person to administrate their affairs.
The need for an official handover of someone's affairs can arise slowly or all of a sudden, Glenys says. Her own family didn't suspect her father had dementia until one day he failed a memory test and abruptly lost his drivers license.
Luckily Glenys's mother already had an ePA in place so it hasn't been too complicated for her to take over some of the decisionmaking, she says.
