A power of attorney in Ontario is a written authority letting someone else act for you, and the province recognises two: a continuing power of attorney for property, and a power of attorney for personal care. Neither has a prescribed form, both need two qualified witnesses, and neither needs to be notarised or registered anywhere.
Most published guidance gets remote signing wrong. The pandemic regulation allowing video witnessing, O. Reg. 129/20, really was revoked on 20 May 2021. On the same day, audio-visual witnessing became permanent inside the statute as section 3.1 of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992. Both halves of the popular belief are half true, and a document witnessed on the wrong assumption fails at the moment it is needed.
The second widespread error concerns termination. Many pages say the attorney’s bankruptcy ends a continuing power of attorney for property. It does not: the clause that once dealt with it was repealed in 1996, and bankruptcy appears nowhere in the current section 12.
Key facts at a glance
| Item | Position as of September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Governing statute | Substitute Decisions Act, 1992; last amendment 2023, c. 9, Sched. 35 |
| Witnesses required | Two, each signing (s. 10(1) property, s. 48(1) personal care) |
| Notarisation | Not required by the Act |
| Minimum age to sign | 18 property (s. 4); 16 personal care (s. 43) |
| Minimum age of attorney | 18 property (s. 5); 16 personal care (s. 44) |
| Attorney compensation | 3% of receipts, 3% of disbursements, three-fifths of 1% care and management fee |
| Remote witnessing | Permitted since 20 May 2021 under s. 3.1; one witness must be a Law Society licensee |
| Provincial registry | None |
Two documents, and a third instrument most guides ignore
A continuing power of attorney for property is made under section 7 of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992. It covers financial affairs and survives loss of capacity. Section 7(1) makes a property document continuing if it either says so, or expresses the intention that the authority may be exercised during the grantor’s incapacity. The word “continuing” is not magic; either formula works.
A power of attorney for personal care, made under section 46, covers health care, housing, nutrition, clothing, hygiene and safety. The forgotten third instrument is the non-continuing power of attorney for property: ordinary agency, useful while someone is away from home, but it lapses the instant the grantor loses capacity. People who sign a bank’s short form often end up with one by accident.
Section 7(2) sets the outer limit of a property attorney’s authority: anything in respect of property the grantor could do if capable, “except make a will”. Neither document need be in any particular form, under sections 7(7.1) and 46(8).
When each document starts working
A property document is effective immediately unless it says otherwise; section 7(7) permits a start date or a triggering contingency. A “springing” document that takes effect on incapacity without saying how incapacity is proved falls into section 9(3), and then works only once the attorney is notified in the prescribed form by a designated capacity assessor, or that a certificate of incapacity has issued under the Mental Health Act. That means paying for a formal assessment first, and the Public Guardian and Trustee warns such conditions may cause complications and delays.
A personal care document is never immediate. Under section 49(1), where the Health Care Consent Act, 1996 applies, a health practitioner must first find the person incapable with respect to that specific treatment. Otherwise the attorney needs reasonable grounds to believe the grantor cannot make that decision. Capacity is decision-specific: someone may be incapable of a serious treatment choice while still directing their own daily routine.
What changed in 2024, 2025 and 2026
The Substitute Decisions Act has not changed substantively since 8 June 2023. A different statute changed one well-known rule in December 2025.
| Item | Status, September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Substitute Decisions Act amended 2024 to 2026 | No. Last amendment 2023, c. 9, Sched. 35 |
| Remote audio-visual witnessing | Permanent since 20 May 2021, under s. 3.1 |
| O. Reg. 129/20 (pandemic signing rules) | Revoked 20 May 2021 by O. Reg. 342/21, s. 1 |
| Regulation prescribing extra s. 3.1 requirements | None found; the s. 90(2.1) power appears unexercised |
| Attorney making a beneficiary designation | Yes, narrowly, since 11 December 2025 |
| Electronic beneficiary designation | Yes, since 11 December 2025 |
| Compensation rates | Unchanged: 3%, 3% and 0.6% |
| Substitute decision-maker hierarchy | Unchanged since 19 April 2021 |
| Government kit | Current: form ON00142E (2024/11), free |
The Protect Ontario by Cutting Red Tape Act, 2025, Schedule 22, came into force on royal assent on 11 December 2025, replacing section 51(1.1) of the Succession Law Reform Act and adding section 51(1.2). The new rule is narrow. Where a beneficiary has already been designated and the plan is being converted, renewed, replaced or transferred, an attorney for property may sign a designation so that the same person is designated under the resulting plan. A maturing RRSP rolled into a RRIF is the obvious case; no power to choose a different beneficiary is created.
Section 51(1.2) is the important half. It confirms that nothing in section 7(2) or 31(1) of the Substitute Decisions Act prevents this, settling a long argument about whether the “except make a will” limit barred attorneys from designations altogether. Designations may now also be made electronically.
Signing correctly: witnesses, disqualifications and remote execution
Execution is where do-it-yourself documents fail. Section 10(1) requires a continuing power of attorney to be “executed in the presence of two witnesses, each of whom shall sign the power of attorney as witness”. Section 48(1) says the same for personal care and section 48(2) imports the same disqualification list.
Who cannot be a witness
- The attorney, or the attorney’s spouse or partner.
- The grantor’s spouse or partner.
- A child of the grantor, or a person the grantor has demonstrated a settled intention to treat as a child.
- A person whose property is under guardianship, or who has a guardian of the person.
- A person under eighteen years old.
Read the boundaries exactly. The attorney’s spouse is barred, the attorney’s adult child is not. The grantor’s child is barred, the grantor’s sibling or parent is not. Whether a couple is married or in a common law relationship in Ontario makes no difference, since section 10(2) covers partners as well as spouses. The witness minimum age is 18 for both documents, including a personal care document a 16-year-old may grant.
If a disqualified person witnesses it, section 10(4) makes the document ineffective, though the court may declare it effective on any person’s application where that serves the interests of the grantor or the grantor’s dependants. That is a proceeding under the Rules of Civil Procedure, not a counter form. Section 13(2) separately protects a third party who dealt in good faith without knowing of the defect.
Must both witnesses be there at the same time?
The statute does not say so. Section 10(1) requires only execution “in the presence of two witnesses”, whereas the Succession Law Reform Act expressly requires witnesses to a will to be present at the same time, in section 4(2)(b). The Substitute Decisions Act omits that phrase. Ontario’s own kit, form ON00142E (2024/11), nonetheless instructs at Part 7 that both witnesses must be present together when you sign. Treat simultaneous presence as required.
Remote witnessing under section 3.1
Section 3.1 was added by the Accelerating Access to Justice Act, 2021 and came into force on 20 May 2021, the same day O. Reg. 129/20 was revoked. There was no gap: the emergency measure was not preserved, it was superseded by a permanent statutory rule.
A requirement under this Act that a power of attorney be executed in the presence of witnesses may be satisfied through the use of audio-visual communication technology, if …
Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, s. 3.1(2)
Three conditions attach. At least one of the two witnesses must be a licensee under the Law Society Act, meaning a lawyer or paralegal. The signatures must be contemporaneously made. And any prescribed requirements must be met, of which there appear to be none, the regulation power in section 90(2.1) not having been used.
Section 3.1(1) defines the technology as any electronic method letting participants see, hear and communicate in real time. Section 3.1(3) permits counterpart signing: complete, identical copies signed separately together constitute the document, with minor differences of format tolerated. Section 3.1(5) applies the regime to revocations.
The practical consequence is usually missed. Because one witness must be a licensee, remote execution is not available on a purely do-it-yourself basis, and signing at home over video with two lay witnesses produces nothing. The government’s November 2024 kit does not mention section 3.1, audio-visual technology or counterpart signing at all. It is not wrong, since in-person signing remains fully valid, but it is incomplete.
Notarisation
Not required. The Public Guardian and Trustee puts it plainly: not required under the Act, though an institution asked to recognise the attorney’s authority may want a notarised copy or sight of the original. An affidavit of execution is likewise not required by statute, but many practitioners prepare one because it makes the document easier to rely on years later. A witness who later dies does not invalidate anything.
Four capacity tests, and why an incapable person can still sign
Ontario uses four separate capacity tests here, and conflating them produces a great deal of bad advice. Section 2 presumes a person 18 or older capable of contracting, and a person 16 or older capable of consenting about their own personal care.
| Test | Section | What it asks | Applied when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity to grant a property document | s. 8(1) | Seven limbs: knowing your property and its rough value; obligations to dependants; that the attorney may do anything except make a will; that the attorney must account; that you may revoke; that imprudent management may reduce value; that the attorney could misuse the authority | At signing |
| Capacity to manage property | s. 6 | Able to understand information relevant to a property decision, or to appreciate the reasonably foreseeable consequences of a decision or lack of one. Failing either branch is incapacity | By an assessor or court; triggers springing documents and guardianship |
| Capacity to grant a personal care document | s. 47(1) | Two limbs only: able to understand whether the proposed attorney has a genuine concern for your welfare, and appreciating you may need that person to decide for you | At signing |
| Capacity for personal care | s. 45 | Able to understand information relevant to your own health care, nutrition, shelter, clothing, hygiene or safety, or to appreciate the consequences | By a practitioner or assessor, decision by decision |
Here is the point almost no guide makes. Section 9(1) says a continuing power of attorney is valid if the grantor was capable of giving it at execution, “even if he or she is incapable of managing property”. So a person who could no longer run their own finances may still be able to appoint someone who can, provided the seven limbs of section 8(1) are met. An early dementia diagnosis does not automatically close the option, and section 47(2) does the same for personal care.
Two related rules. Under sections 8(2) and 47(3) the capacity to revoke equals the capacity to grant. And under section 47(4), instructions written into a personal care document are valid only if the grantor had capacity to make that particular decision when signing, so the bar for instructions is higher than the bar for the appointment.
Who can be named attorney, and who is barred
An attorney for property must be at least 18 (section 5), for personal care at least 16 (section 44), and must be capable. Section 46(3) then creates a bar that surprises families: a person who provides health care, or residential, social, training or support services, to the grantor for compensation may not act as attorney for personal care unless that person is the grantor’s spouse, partner or relative. A paid support worker or retirement home operator is excluded; a daughter who is paid to provide care is not. There is no equivalent bar for property attorneys.
There is no residency requirement, and the Public Guardian and Trustee confirms you may name someone outside the province. Contrast section 24(3), under which a court-appointed guardian of property living outside Ontario must post security. The Public Guardian and Trustee itself can be named only with its prior written consent, and it rarely consents.
Naming two attorneys carries a trap. Under sections 7(4) and 46(4) they act jointly by default, so every decision needs both signatures unless the document says “jointly and severally”. Sections 7(5) and 46(5) let the remainder carry on if one dies, becomes incapable or resigns. Naming a substitute attorney is the single most effective drafting fix, because it prevents automatic termination when the first choice fails.
Duties, records, pay, and what an attorney can never do
Section 32(1) makes a guardian of property a fiduciary who must act “diligently, with honesty and integrity and in good faith, for the incapable person’s benefit”. Section 38(1) applies that code to an attorney only once the grantor is incapable of managing property, or the attorney has reasonable grounds to believe so. Before that, an attorney is a common law agent, still a fiduciary, but outside the statute’s detailed duties. For personal care, section 66(1) sets a lighter textual standard: diligence and good faith, with no express fiduciary label.
The records the regulation actually demands
Section 32(6) requires accounts kept in accordance with the regulations, and O. Reg. 100/96 applies expressly to attorneys. Its section 2(1) lists nine categories: an opening asset list; assets acquired and disposed of, with dates and reasons; all money received, with the account it went into; all money paid out, with purpose and payee; all investments, with rates; opening liabilities; liabilities incurred and discharged; all compensation taken, with the method of calculation; and the assets used to calculate the care and management fee. For personal care, section 3(1) requires every health care, safety and shelter decision logged with its reason and date, the relevant medical reports, everyone consulted, the person’s prior capable wishes, and the attorney’s view on each best-interests factor.
Compensation, and the standard of care it triggers
Section 40(1) lets an attorney under a continuing power of attorney take annual compensation from the property on the prescribed scale. No court approval and no prior authorisation is needed, and section 40(2) permits monthly, quarterly or annual payment. Readers and attorneys alike tend to assume the role is unpaid.
| Charge | Rate | Applied to |
|---|---|---|
| Receipts | 3 per cent | Capital and income receipts |
| Disbursements | 3 per cent | Capital and income disbursements |
| Care and management fee | Three-fifths of 1 per cent (0.6 per cent) | Annual average value of the assets |
Those rates come from O. Reg. 26/95 and have not moved since 2015. Section 40(4) makes the scale subject to the document itself, so a grantor can reduce the rate or bar compensation. Exceeding the scale needs the written consent of the Public Guardian and Trustee and of any attorney for personal care.
The trade-off is what family attorneys rarely appreciate. Section 32(7) holds an uncompensated attorney to the care and skill of a person of ordinary prudence in their own affairs. Section 32(8) holds a compensated attorney to the standard of a person in the business of managing the property of others. Taking the 3 per cent raises the standard you will be judged by.
Gifts and loans
Section 37(1) makes three expenditures mandatory, in priority order: support, education and care of the incapable person; the same for dependants; and other legal obligations. Optional expenditures under section 37(3) are gifts or loans to friends and relatives, and charitable gifts.
Section 37(4) imposes six limits. The property must remain sufficient for the mandatory expenditures. Gifts or loans to friends or relatives are allowed only where there is reason to believe, based on intentions expressed before incapacity, that the person would have made them. Charitable gifts need either authorisation in a pre-incapacity document or evidence of similar past giving. No gift may be made if the incapable person expresses a wish against it. And charitable gifts are capped at the lesser of 20 per cent of that year’s income of the property and any maximum in the document, with a court application needed to exceed it. There is no statutory dollar cap on gifts to friends and relatives; the controls are the prior-intentions and sufficiency tests. Self-gifting remains the classic breach.
The prohibitions
| The attorney cannot | Authority |
|---|---|
| Make or change a will | SDA s. 7(2) |
| Grant a new power of attorney or delegate the office | OPGT guidance; the rule against sub-delegation |
| Change a beneficiary designation, apart from the December 2025 carve-out | SLRA s. 51(1), with s. 51(1.1) and (1.2) |
| Vote on the grantor’s behalf | Ontario 2026 Voters’ Guide; only a voting proxy may |
| Consent to sterilisation that is not medically necessary | SDA s. 66(14); HCCA s. 6 |
| Consent to tissue or organ removal for transplant into another | SDA s. 66(14); HCCA s. 6 |
| Consent to a procedure whose primary purpose is research | SDA s. 66(13); HCCA s. 6 |
| Confine, restrain or use monitoring devices | SDA s. 66(10), unless essential to prevent serious bodily harm |
| Use force to assess, transport, admit, detain or restrain | SDA s. 50, only with an express provision and two prescribed-form statements within 30 days |
| Act contrary to a known prior capable wish | SDA s. 66(3); HCCA s. 21(1) |
| Act under a personal care document while the grantor is capable | SDA s. 49(1) |
Section 32(1.2) adds a further limit: a property attorney must manage the property consistently with personal care decisions made by whoever has authority over them, unless the property consequences significantly outweigh the personal care benefits. Money does not overrule care.
What actually terminates a power of attorney, and what does not
Section 12(1) is the exhaustive list for a continuing power of attorney for property. It terminates when:
- the attorney dies, becomes incapable of managing property, or resigns, unless another attorney may act under section 7(5) or a named substitute is able and willing;
- the court appoints a guardian of property under section 22;
- the grantor executes a new continuing power of attorney, unless multiple documents are provided for;
- the document is revoked;
- the grantor dies.
The attorney’s bankruptcy is not on that list. Clause 12(1)(b) was repealed in 1996 and no bankruptcy trigger survives, so any page saying a filing with a licensed insolvency trustee cancels the appointment is wrong as of 2026. Nor does the grantor’s marriage, divorce or separation end it, and nor does the grantor’s own incapacity, which is the entire point of a continuing document.
Section 53(1) is the personal care equivalent: attorney death, incapacity for personal care or resignation; court appointment of a guardian of the person under section 55; a new personal care document; or revocation. The grantor’s death is not listed, but a power of attorney operates only while the grantor is alive, after which the estate trustee takes over and the estate moves into the probate process.
Revocation is formal: under sections 12(2) and 53(2) it must be in writing and executed the same way as the power of attorney itself, meaning two witnesses from outside the same disqualification list, and section 3.1(5) allows it remotely. Resignation is not instant either. Under section 11(1), an attorney who has already acted stays on the hook until a copy is delivered to the grantor, any other attorneys, any named substitute, and, where the attorney believes the grantor is incapable and no substitute will act, the grantor’s spouse or partner and Ontario-resident relatives known to the attorney. Delivery is not required to a separated spouse, which matters where a separation agreement is in place.
Health care decisions, the substitute hierarchy, and the “living will”
Health care consent is governed by the Health Care Consent Act, 1996, not by the Substitute Decisions Act. Section 20(1) sets a ranked list of substitute decision-makers.
| Rank | Substitute decision-maker |
|---|---|
| 1 | Guardian of the person, if the appointment covers the treatment |
| 2 | Attorney for personal care, if the document confers the authority |
| 3 | Representative appointed by the Consent and Capacity Board under s. 33 |
| 4 | Spouse or partner |
| 5 | Child or parent, or an agency entitled to consent in a parent’s place |
| 6 | A parent with only a right of access |
| 7 | Brother or sister |
| 8 | Any other relative |
An attorney for personal care sits at rank 2, above the spouse, so signing one is how a person displaces the default family ordering. Whoever acts must be capable of the decision, at least 16 unless a parent, not barred by a court order or separation agreement, available and willing. If nobody qualifies, or two people of equal rank disagree, the Public Guardian and Trustee decides.
Now the part most readers get wrong. Ontario law does not use the term “living will” and does not recognise it as a distinct legal instrument; the Public Guardian and Trustee says so directly. The wishes themselves, however, are binding. Section 5(2) of the Health Care Consent Act accepts wishes expressed in a power of attorney, in a prescribed form, in any other written form, orally, or in any other manner. Section 5(3) makes later capable wishes prevail over earlier ones, so a conversation last month overrides a signed directive from a decade ago.
A wish is not a consent. Under section 21(1) it directs the substitute, who then gives or refuses consent; the practitioner takes consent from the person, not from the paper. Anyone arriving from Alberta should note that a personal directive there is a different statutory creature. Where a practitioner believes a substitute is not complying with section 21, the route is an application to the Consent and Capacity Board under section 37.
When an attorney is suspected of financial abuse
No Ontario statistic isolates abuse committed by attorneys under a power of attorney. The best available Canadian data is the National Survey on the Mistreatment of Older Canadians, 2015, which found financial abuse affecting 2.6 per cent of community-dwelling Canadians aged 55 and over in the previous twelve months, roughly 244,000 people, across all perpetrators nationally. Any figure specific to attorneys is an estimate, not an official number.
The structural reason abuse goes undetected can be read off the statute: no registry, no filing requirement, no supervision, no mandatory accounting to anyone unless someone applies to court, and compensation that may be taken without approval.
Compelling a passing of accounts
Section 42(1) lets the court order that an attorney’s accounts be passed, and section 42(2) says the attorney, the grantor, or a person listed in section 42(4) may apply. That list is the hurdle: the guardian of the person or attorney for personal care, a dependant, the Public Guardian and Trustee, the Children’s Lawyer, a judgment creditor, and any other person with leave of the court. An adult child or sibling is not on it as of right and needs leave, a real and frequently overlooked obstacle. This is not a matter for Small Claims Court; it goes to the Superior Court of Justice.
On a passing, section 42(7) lets the court, on motion or on its own initiative, direct the Public Guardian and Trustee to bring a guardianship application, suspend the power of attorney, appoint a guardian pending determination, order a capacity assessment under section 79, or terminate the power of attorney outright. Section 33(1) makes the attorney liable in damages for breach of duty, with relief only where the attorney acted honestly, reasonably and diligently. The record-keeping rules give this teeth: an attorney who kept no records is in serious difficulty.
The Public Guardian and Trustee investigation
Section 27(2) imposes a mandatory duty to investigate any allegation that a person is incapable of managing property and that serious adverse effects are occurring or may occur, defined in section 27(1) as loss of a significant part of the property or failure to provide the necessities of life. Section 62 mirrors this for personal care, where serious illness or injury, or deprivation of liberty or personal security, are the trigger.
Where prompt action is needed the office must apply to court, which may appoint it temporary guardian for up to 90 days and, under section 27(8), suspend the powers of any attorney for that term. Its reach is wide: section 83 covers records held by the attorney, banks, pension administrators, brokers and facilities, and states that the section prevails over any other Act. Obstructing an ordered assessment or an authorised entry is an offence carrying a fine of up to $5,000. Section 80 permits a restraining order, a different instrument from the family law restraining order most people know.
Two limits appear in the office’s own guidance: it is not an emergency crisis response service, and it has no right to make decisions until a court appoints it. The threshold also excludes a great deal, because exploitation of a capable senior falls outside section 27 entirely and is a police or civil matter. Reports go to the Guardianship Investigations Unit, 595 Bay Street, Suite 800, Toronto, on 416-327-6348 or 1-800-366-0335.
What happens when there is no power of attorney
The gap is far more severe on the property side. Without an attorney for property, family members, including a spouse, cannot automatically step in on financial matters. Without a personal care document, a family member generally can act, because the Health Care Consent Act hierarchy fills the space automatically.
Statutory guardianship arises without a court. Under section 15, a certificate under the Mental Health Act for a psychiatric inpatient makes the Public Guardian and Trustee statutory guardian of property. Under section 16, any person may ask a designated assessor to assess someone, using the prescribed form and confirming no knowledge of an existing attorney with authority over all the person’s property; if a certificate of incapacity issues, the office becomes guardian on receiving it. Section 16.1 lets an existing attorney displace that guardianship on producing the document, a written undertaking and proof of identity.
Court-appointed guardianship is the other route, open to any applicant under section 22(1). Section 22(3) is the provision that makes a power of attorney worth signing: the court shall not appoint a guardian where the need for decisions will be met by an alternative that does not require a finding of incapacity and is less restrictive of the person’s decision-making rights. A valid continuing power of attorney is normally exactly that alternative. Section 55 governs guardianship of the person, and ontario.ca states that applying to court is the only way to become one.
| Item | Amount or status |
|---|---|
| Issuing a notice of application, Superior Court of Justice | $243 |
| Filing a notice of motion | $339 |
| Filing a trial record, first time | $859 |
| Notice of appearance | $172 |
| Capacity assessment | No government rate exists; assessors set their own hourly or flat rates |
| Legal fees and total cost of a private application | Not published by the government |
| Temporary guardianship, maximum term | 90 days (SDA ss. 27(6), 62(7)) |
Be careful with cost claims found online. The $243 filing fee is verifiable. No government source publishes a fee, range or maximum for a capacity assessment, and none publishes a typical duration or total cost for a private guardianship application. Financial assistance for assessments does exist, described on the ontario.ca mental capacity page, with about 10 business days to a status notification.
Assessors are regulated. Under O. Reg. 460/05 an assessor must belong to one of five colleges (physicians and surgeons, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, nurses), complete the Attorney General’s qualifying course and biennial continuing education, perform a minimum number of assessments each year, and carry professional liability insurance of at least $1,000,000. Section 78 preserves the right to refuse an assessment, which is exactly why the court route exists.
The free kit, the missing registry, and using the document elsewhere
Ontario publishes a free Power of Attorney Kit, form ON00142E (2024/11), containing both documents plus instructions and guidance for grantors who cannot read. It is a current November 2024 edition, not a legacy file, and it is linked from the ontario.ca page on how to make a power of attorney. It must be printed and signed to be valid. A lawyer is not legally required, though ontario.ca recommends one where a bank power of attorney is involved, where you run a business, where the family situation is difficult, or where you own property in another province or country.
There is no provincial registry. The Public Guardian and Trustee says so three separate ways: registration is not required, there is no official register, and no government office keeps a record. Two things get confused with a registry. The office does maintain a register of guardians, statutory and court-appointed, which anyone may query. And a continuing power of attorney may be registered on title for a specific land transaction under Land Registration Bulletin 94001, which is transaction-specific rather than a central list. Whether registration on title is mandatory before an attorney deals with land is not stated in the bulletin, so confirm it with a real estate lawyer alongside the usual title insurance questions.
A drafting trap: the Ontario land registration system does not accept powers of attorney containing personal information such as government identification, bank account, passport or birth certificate details. Writing your account numbers into the document can make it unregistrable against land.
On cross-border use, the official position is that it depends on the law of the place where you want to use it, and that because powers of attorney are governed provincially you may run into difficulty using an Ontario one elsewhere in Canada. Section 85(1) is generous inbound: as regards the manner and formalities of execution, a document is valid in Ontario if it complied with the law of the place where it was executed, where the grantor was domiciled, or where the grantor was habitually resident. No other jurisdiction is obliged to return the favour, and section 86 provides a resealing route for foreign guardianship orders, not for powers of attorney.
For the United States the Act is silent, and recognition turns on individual state law; American financial institutions frequently refuse foreign documents outright. For real property abroad, a local document where the land sits is normally required. Even inside Ontario acceptance is not guaranteed, because institutions set their own anti-fraud policies. Signing a bank’s own form carries a specific danger: it may cover only that institution’s accounts, and it may revoke the document you already have, because section 12(1)(d) terminates the earlier one unless multiple documents are expressly permitted.
Frequently asked questions
Does an Ontario power of attorney have to be notarised?
No. The Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 requires only two qualified witnesses. The Public Guardian and Trustee confirms notarisation is not required, while noting that a bank or land registry office may insist on a notarised copy or on seeing the original before recognising the attorney’s authority. That is institutional policy, not a condition of validity.
Does the attorney’s bankruptcy cancel a continuing power of attorney?
No. Bankruptcy appears nowhere in section 12(1), the exhaustive list of terminating events. The clause that once addressed it, section 12(1)(b), was repealed in 1996. Many published articles still say bankruptcy ends the appointment, and that statement is incorrect as of 2026. A grantor troubled by it can revoke and re-execute.
Can I sign a power of attorney by video call?
Yes, under section 3.1, but only if at least one of the two witnesses is a lawyer or paralegal licensed under the Law Society Act, the signatures are contemporaneously made, and any prescribed requirements are met. Identical counterparts may be signed separately and together constitute the document. Video signing with two lay witnesses produces an invalid document.
How much can my attorney pay themselves?
Under O. Reg. 26/95, section 1, an attorney for property may take 3 per cent of capital and income receipts, 3 per cent of capital and income disbursements, and three-fifths of 1 per cent of the annual average value of the assets as a care and management fee. No court approval is required, and your document can reduce the rate or bar compensation entirely.
Can I still make a power of attorney after a dementia diagnosis?
Possibly. Section 9(1) says a continuing power of attorney is valid if the grantor was capable of giving it at execution, even if already incapable of managing property. The test for granting, in section 8(1), is narrower than the test for managing property in section 6, and the bar for a personal care document under section 47(1) is lower still.
Can my attorney change my will or my beneficiary designations?
Not the will; section 7(2) excludes will-making expressly. Beneficiary designations were also off limits until 11 December 2025, when the Succession Law Reform Act gained section 51(1.1). An attorney may now re-designate the same person already designated, and only where the plan is being converted, renewed, replaced or transferred. Choosing a different beneficiary remains prohibited.
Where do I register my power of attorney in Ontario?
Nowhere. Ontario has no registry, and no government office keeps a record of these documents. The practical substitute is distribution: make sure the attorney, any substitute, your bank and your physician know it exists and can get a copy. Registration on title for a particular land transaction is a different thing entirely.
Can my paid caregiver be my attorney?
Not for personal care, unless that person is your spouse, partner or relative. Section 46(3) bars anyone who provides health care, or residential, social, training or support services, to you for compensation. A paid support worker or retirement home operator is excluded; a relative you pay is not. There is no equivalent statutory bar for an attorney for property.
Is a living will legally binding in Ontario?
Ontario law does not use the term and does not recognise a living will as a separate instrument. The wishes it records, however, bind your substitute decision-maker unless impossible to follow. Section 5(2) of the Health Care Consent Act accepts wishes expressed in writing, orally or in any other manner, and section 5(3) makes later capable wishes override earlier ones.
Who decides for me if I have no personal care document?
The Health Care Consent Act hierarchy in section 20(1) supplies someone automatically: guardian of the person, then attorney for personal care, then a Board-appointed representative, then spouse or partner, then child or parent, and so on down to any other relative. Signing a personal care document moves your chosen person to rank 2, ahead of your spouse.
Can two people be my attorney at the same time?
Yes, but read section 7(4) carefully. Two or more attorneys must act jointly unless the document says otherwise, so every decision needs both signatures. If either should be able to act alone, the document must say “jointly and severally”. Sections 7(5) and 46(5) let the survivor continue if one dies, becomes incapable or resigns.
How do I revoke a power of attorney?
In writing, executed the same way as the original: two witnesses, none from the section 10(2) disqualified list. The capacity to revoke equals the capacity to grant, under section 8(2). Deliver copies to the former attorney and to every institution holding one. If you own real estate, consider having a lawyer register notice of the revocation on title.
My parent’s attorney is spending their money. What can I do?
An adult child cannot compel a passing of accounts as of right and needs leave of the court under section 42(4), paragraph 6. Alternatively, report the matter to the Public Guardian and Trustee’s Guardianship Investigations Unit, which must investigate allegations of incapacity combined with serious adverse effects. Where theft is suspected, contact the police as well.
Before acting on any of this
This page is legal information, not legal advice, and Lawverra does not provide legal services or represent clients. Powers of attorney turn on individual facts, particularly around capacity, family circumstances and property held outside Ontario, so a licensed Ontario lawyer should review anything of consequence before it is signed or relied on. Several figures circulating online could not be verified against any government source and are deliberately absent: the cost of a capacity assessment, the total cost or duration of a private guardianship application, and any statistic isolating abuse by attorneys. Where this page gives a dollar figure, it comes from a regulation.
Last reviewed: September 2026. Primary sources checked: the e-Laws consolidation of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 (from 1 April 2024, last amendment 2023, c. 9, Sched. 35); the Health Care Consent Act, 1996; the Succession Law Reform Act as amended by the Protect Ontario by Cutting Red Tape Act, 2025, Sched. 22; O. Reg. 26/95, O. Reg. 100/96, O. Reg. 460/05 and O. Reg. 293/92; and the Ontario Power of Attorney Kit, form ON00142E (2024/11), with the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee’s published guidance.
