Wills and Powers of Attorney Melbourne
Wills and Powers of Attorney
If something happened tomorrow, who would be in charge?
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A will protects the people you love after you’re gone. But what about right now?
Most people know they should have a will. Far fewer understand that a will only takes effect after you die.
Your family can’t access your money to pay your bills
A government body makes decisions about your medical treatment
Your assets don’t go where you intended
Your family disputes what should happen
None of this has to be your family’s reality.
Three documents. One conversation. Complete protection.
A Will sets out exactly what happens to your assets after you die, who receives what, who administers your estate, and if you have children, who cares for them. Without a valid Will, the law decides. The law’s decision is rarely the same as yours would have been.
A Will also needs to stay current. Marriage can automatically revoke an existing Will. Separation does not automatically remove provisions benefiting a former partner. A Will made before a significant life event may fail to account for people who now matter most to you.
Getting a Will done properly and keeping it updated is one of the most straightforward things you can do for the people you love. Putting it off is one of the most costly.
An Enduring Power of Attorney appoints someone you trust to manage your financial and personal affairs if you lose the capacity to do so yourself, whether due to illness, injury, or age-related decline.
This document operates while you are still alive. It is entirely separate from your Will and covers an entirely different set of circumstances: not what happens after you die, but what happens if you can’t make decisions right now.
Your attorney can manage:
Financial powers including your bank accounts, property and real estate transactions, debts and obligations, business operations, investments, and providing for your dependants.
Personal powers including where you live, who you live with, your social and professional life, and everyday living decisions.
You can specify when their powers activate. Immediately. Upon a doctor’s certificate confirming loss of capacity. Upon your own written authorisation. You can also impose limitations, preventing the sale of the family home, capping professional trustee fees, specifying acceptable investment types. These are decisions you make now, while you have capacity, so the right protections exist if you ever need them.
Without it, VCAT steps in. The State Trustees charge fees from your own funds. The process creates delays exactly when timely decisions are most needed. And the people who love you are legally powerless to help without going through a formal process first.
An MTDM appoints a specific person to make healthcare decisions on your behalf if you are ever unable to make them yourself. An injury. A medical condition. A temporary incapacity. Your nominated person steps in until you recover, then steps back out.
This document covers healthcare only. It does not cover financial or property decisions, which are covered by your EPoA. Both documents are needed because they cover different situations.
Your Medical Treatment Decision Maker must make the decision they believe you would have made, based on your values, preferences, and any Advance Care Directive you have completed.
Without one, the law provides a default hierarchy starting with your spouse or domestic partner, then your primary carer, then your oldest available adult child, then your oldest parent, then your oldest adult sibling. That hierarchy may not reflect who you would actually choose. It may produce the wrong person at exactly the wrong moment.
Choosing who you appoint matters as much as having the documents.
Appointing multiple attorneys
You can legally appoint more than one person. But the relationship between them matters enormously under pressure. Sibling rivalry. Tensions in blended families. Conflicts between a spouse and adult children from a previous relationship. These dynamics become critical when joint decisions need to be made quickly while you are incapacitated and unable to mediate between them.
The practical question is whether the people you’re considering can realistically make timely decisions together during a crisis. If the answer is uncertain, appointing one trusted person with a clear backup is often the safer choice.
If you do appoint joint attorneys, you can specify whether they act jointly (together for every decision) or jointly and severally (together or separately). The difference matters more than people realise.
The conflict of interest clause
Our standard EPoA includes a conflict of interest clause. Most people appoint family members as attorneys who are also beneficiaries under their Will. This creates a theoretical conflict: a child who is both your attorney and your beneficiary may face decisions where their duty to you and their financial interest as a beneficiary could theoretically diverge.
Most family members act in your best interests regardless. But without a conflict of interest clause, VCAT has jurisdiction to remove your attorney based solely on the existence of that theoretical conflict, even where no actual impropriety has occurred.
Our clause explicitly authorises your attorney to continue acting despite theoretical conflicts, while requiring them to seek independent advice in cases of genuine conflict. Your chosen person stays in their role. Your wishes are respected.
Your revocation rights
You can change or revoke your EPoA at any time while you retain mental capacity. Once you lose capacity, you cannot revoke it. This is what makes the document enduring. It also makes your initial choice of attorney, and any limitations you impose, decisions that deserve proper thought rather than a rushed signature.
This is about more than documents. It’s about what you leave behind.
For business owners
For parents of young children
For farming families
For blended families
We help clients think through all of it, not just the paperwork.
Get a Will in place, or update the one you have
Put an Enduring Power of Attorney in place
Appoint a medical treatment decision maker
Tell the people you’ve appointed
Review everything when your circumstances change
Worried about what this will cost you? We’ve thought about that too.
Free first
appointment
Fixed fees where
we can
