# Law Society - Web Capture - Powers of Attorney

**Document ID:** doc-0121
**Source organisation:** New Zealand Law Society
**Publication date / edition:** Undated
**Source chronology:** Publisher’s page update: 04/09/2024 (4 September 2024); original capture: June 2026.
**Independently checked:** 8 October 2026
**Evidence:** Official guidance; Statutory oversight

## Summary

Law Society guidance explains how enduring powers of attorney operate, when decision-making authority starts and ends, and what families can do when no EPA exists.

## Key facts

- A general power of attorney loses effect when the donor loses mental capacity; an EPA must be arranged while the donor has capacity.
- A property EPA can operate immediately or only on mental incapacity, as chosen in the document.
- A personal care and welfare EPA operates only on mental incapacity; important decisions require a doctor’s certificate, while other decisions require reasonable grounds.
- Only one personal care and welfare attorney acts at a time; property attorneys can have specified joint, separate or majority arrangements.
- A capable donor can cancel an EPA through written notice. An EPA ends at death, when estate administration takes over.

## Next step

Discuss capacity, commencement, successor attorneys and reporting conditions with a qualified adviser. Where no valid EPA exists and capacity is lost, ask about Family Court options.

## Sources and scope

[New Zealand Law Society: primary resource](https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-the-public/common-legal-issues/powers-of-attorney/) — accessed 8 October 2026.

Undated guidance with page update shown as 4 September 2024, independently checked 8 October 2026. Original library capture was June 2026, not the source publication date. This is the Law Society’s explanatory guidance, not a ruling on a particular EPA or capacity assessment.

Original paraphrase of the linked primary public sources; follow the publisher’s resource for full details.