Power of Attorney Checklist for Aging Parents in PEI

Step 1: Confirm Your Parent's Capacity

Before anything else, determine whether your parent can still legally sign. The standard isn't complicated: they need to understand who they're appointing, what assets they have in general terms, and what it means for the appointed person to manage those assets.

A dementia diagnosis doesn't automatically mean incapacity. Capacity is decision-specific and can fluctuate — many people with early cognitive decline retain sufficient understanding for this purpose. If there's any doubt, consider having the family physician provide a brief capacity note at the time of signing.

If capacity is already gone, planning documents are no longer an option. The family must pursue a Supreme Court guardianship and trusteeship application instead — a process that costs $3,000 to $10,000+ and takes three to six months.

Step 2: Decide Who Takes Each Role

PEI's legal framework splits decision-making into three distinct roles. You need to assign each one:

• Attorney (enduring power of attorney) — manages finances, property, bank accounts, tax filings, pension matters
• Agent (personal directive) — manages non-medical personal decisions: housing placement, social associations, daily care, nutrition
• Proxy (health care directive) — consents to or refuses medical treatment

The same person can hold all three roles, or you can split them among family members. The important thing is choosing people who meet the 2025 eligibility rules: no undischarged bankruptcy (for attorneys), and no criminal conviction in the preceding ten years for assault, theft, fraud, criminal harassment, or breach of trust unless a record suspension or another statutory exception applies. One such exception requires the capable principal to acknowledge the conviction and consent in writing after receiving independent legal advice.

Name alternates for each role in case the primary person becomes unable or unwilling to act.

Step 3: Gather the Financial Inventory

Before your parent signs, compile a list of what the attorney will be managing:

• Bank accounts (institution, account type, approximate balance)
• Registered accounts (RRSP, RRIF, TFSA)
• Pension income (CPP, OAS, GIS, any workplace pension)
• Real estate (the family home, any secondary property)
• Vehicles
• Insurance policies
• Outstanding debts and regular bills

This inventory serves two purposes: it helps the attorney understand the scope of their responsibility from day one, and it satisfies the statutory duty to account imposed by the 2025 regulations. Under the new rules, attorneys must maintain records of all property, income, and expenditures.

Step 4: Choose Eligible Witnesses

For an enduring power of attorney or personal directive, you need one witness who is not:

• The named attorney, agent, or proxy
• Any family member of the named attorney, agent, or proxy
• An employee of the named attorney or agent (with narrow exceptions for lawyers and trust companies)
• Under age 18
• Unable to understand the parent's form of communication

Good options: a neighbour, a family friend with no role in the document, a colleague, or a community member. Line up your witnesses before the signing session — scrambling to find eligible people at the last minute creates unnecessary stress.

Step 5: Execute All Three Documents

Set aside a calm afternoon for the signing session. Have your parent, one eligible witness, and anyone signing on behalf (if the parent can't physically write) in the same room. Each document must be:

• Written and dated, then signed by your parent—or signed on the parent's behalf under the applicable statutory conditions if the parent is physically incapable
• For an enduring power of attorney or personal directive, witnessed by one eligible witness
• If someone signs a health care directive on the parent's behalf, the parent must acknowledge the signature before one witness, who also signs
• Signed by the proxy (for the health care directive specifically — the proxy must sign to accept the appointment)

If using a springing power of attorney, confirm that the springing trigger clause is clearly drafted — this determines what medical certification is needed later to activate the authority.

Step 6: Distribute Copies

Once signed, the documents need to reach the right places:

• Original → accessible home location (not a locked safe deposit box; you need to reach it during an emergency)
• Notarized copies → the named attorney, agent, and proxy (each should have their own copy)
• Copy to the family physician → especially the health care directive; this ensures it's on file before a hospital visit
• Copy to Health PEI → if home care is already involved, the home care coordinator should have the personal directive and health care directive on file
• Notice of acting → when the attorney or agent begins to act, give written notice to anyone designated in the document and, where practicable, to the principal. A prescribed form is not mandatory, and failure to give notice does not invalidate the appointment or affect the authority.

Step 7: Register With the CRA

The Canada Revenue Agency doesn't automatically recognize a provincial power of attorney. To access your parent's tax records, file returns on their behalf, or obtain the Notice of Assessment needed for the long-term care subsidy, submit a completed CRA Authorize a Representative form along with the EPA.

Do this early. If your parent needs long-term care, the subsidy application requires the prior-year Notice of Assessment, and the April 30 tax filing deadline is the hard cutoff for maintaining eligibility.

Our PEI Power of Attorney & Personal Directive Kit walks through each of these steps with the 2025 statutory forms, a witness screening sheet, a financial inventory template, and a distribution checklist — everything you need to get from Step 1 to Step 7 in a single sitting.

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