Enduring Power of Attorney vs Personal Directive Alberta: Which Does What

Two Documents, Two Completely Different Authorities

Alberta divides legal decision-making authority for incapacitated adults into two separate documents governed by two separate statutes. Getting these confused — or assuming one covers everything — is the most common and most expensive mistake families make.

An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) governs financial and property decisions. A Personal Directive (PD) governs personal and healthcare decisions. They appoint different people, take effect under different conditions, and are enforced by different legislation. Having one without the other leaves a critical gap.

What the EPA Controls

An EPA is created under the Powers of Attorney Act. It appoints an "attorney" (not a lawyer — any trusted person) to manage your parent's financial, legal, and property affairs. This includes:

• Banking: accessing accounts, paying bills, managing investments
• Real estate: selling or mortgaging property
• Tax filings
• Government benefit applications (OAS, GIS, Alberta Seniors Benefit)
• Insurance claims
• Legal contracts

The EPA can take effect immediately upon signing or "spring" into effect only when a specified triggering event occurs — typically a declaration of mental incapacity. A springing EPA requires a formal capacity assessment before the attorney's authority activates, which provides a safeguard against premature financial control.

The attorney under an EPA has no authority over healthcare, living arrangements, or personal care decisions. If your parent's case manager asks who can consent to a care home placement, the EPA attorney cannot do so unless they are also named as the PD agent.

What the Personal Directive Controls

A PD is created under the Personal Directives Act. It appoints an "agent" (different terminology from the EPA's "attorney") to make non-financial personal decisions. This includes:

• Healthcare treatment decisions: consenting to or refusing medical procedures, medications, therapies
• Care facility placement: accepting or declining a continuing care home offer
• Living arrangements: deciding where the parent resides
• Social and recreational activities
• Diet, clothing, hygiene preferences
• End-of-life care instructions

The PD only takes effect when the maker is declared incapacitated. Unlike the EPA, there is no option for it to take effect immediately. Two people must formally declare incapacity before the agent's authority activates:

• If the PD names a specific capacity assessor: that person plus a physician or psychologist complete Schedule 2 (Section 9(2)(a))
• If the PD does not name a specific assessor: two service providers (at least one being a physician or psychologist) complete Schedule 3 (Section 9(2)(b))

Until that declaration is signed, the agent has no legal authority — even if the parent clearly cannot make decisions independently.

Why Your Parent Needs Both

The two documents cover non-overlapping domains. Without both:

EPA only, no PD: The attorney can pay your parent's bills and manage their investments, but cannot consent to the Type B continuing care home placement that AHS is pressuring the family to accept within 48 hours. No one has legal authority to make that decision. The family is stuck — or forced into a months-long, thousands-of-dollars court application for guardianship under the AGTA.

PD only, no EPA: The agent can consent to healthcare and placement decisions, but cannot access the parent's bank accounts to pay the accommodation charges, apply for the Supplementary Accommodation Benefit, manage the sale of the family home to fund care, or handle any financial obligation. Banks will not accept the PD as authority over accounts.

Neither: If a parent loses capacity without either document, the family must apply to the Court of King's Bench for a Guardianship Order (personal decisions) and/or Trusteeship Order (financial decisions) under the Adult Guardianship and Trusteeship Act. The court filing fee alone is $300. Legal fees, capacity assessment reports, and court processing timelines of 2 to 6 months compound the delay and cost.

Same Person or Different People?

The EPA attorney and the PD agent can be the same person — and often are when one adult child is managing everything. But they don't have to be. Some families deliberately split the roles: one sibling handles finances (EPA attorney) while another handles healthcare and placement decisions (PD agent). This provides a built-in check against unilateral decisions and can reduce conflict in families where money and care preferences are contentious issues.

If the same person is appointed under both documents, each document still needs to be executed separately with its own witness requirements and signatures.

How to Get Started

Both documents can be prepared without a lawyer, though families dealing with blended family dynamics, complex assets, or potential capacity disputes should consult an elder law lawyer. The cost for a lawyer-prepared EPA and PD package in Alberta typically runs $225 to $300 for simple standalone documents or $1,000 to $1,500 for a comprehensive estate package including both documents plus a will.

The CPLEA (Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta) publishes free plain-language guides to both documents. The Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee provides the official PD form (OPG5521), and PDs can be optionally registered in the provincial Personal Directive Registry.

For the full walkthrough — including how these documents interact with AHS case managers during the care placement process, and what happens when the 48-hour placement offer deadline arrives — get the Alberta care decision guide.

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