Power of Attorney Duties and Obligations in PEI

What the 2025 Regulations Require

The Powers of Attorney and Personal Directives Regulations (EC927/25) transformed the role of attorney from an informal family arrangement into a position with explicit statutory obligations. Whether you're acting under a newly executed document or an older one predating November 1, 2025, these duties now apply to you.

Record-keeping. You must maintain a detailed written record of all property held by the principal, their liabilities, all sources of income, and every expenditure you make on their behalf. This isn't optional, and "keeping mental track" doesn't satisfy the requirement. The records must be producible on demand.

Duty to account. The principal, while capable, can ask you for a full accounting at any time. After the principal loses capacity, immediate family members with standing or a court can demand the same. Your records must show what came in, what went out, and why.

Fiduciary standard. You're legally obligated to act in the principal's best interest, not your own. This means no self-dealing (you can't buy the parent's property for yourself at a discount), no commingling (don't mix the parent's funds with your own bank account), and no using the parent's assets for personal benefit unless the document explicitly authorizes gifts or personal loans.

Joint vs. Successive Attorneys

PEI law allows a principal to name more than one attorney, with different structural options:

Joint attorneys must act together. Every decision, every transaction, every signature requires both (or all) attorneys to agree. This provides built-in oversight but creates practical problems — if one attorney is travelling, ill, or simply unreachable, the other cannot act alone. A joint structure works best when the attorneys are local, cooperative, and available.

Joint and several attorneys can act independently. Either attorney can handle transactions on their own without the other's signature. This is more flexible but reduces oversight — one attorney may not know what the other is doing with the parent's finances.

Successive (alternate) attorneys are named as backups. The alternate only steps in if the primary attorney becomes unable or unwilling to act. The primary has sole authority until that point. This is the most common structure for families where one child is clearly the right choice but the parent wants a safety net.

The choice between these structures depends on family dynamics, geography, and how much coordination the siblings are willing to maintain. A parent with two local, cooperative children might choose joint. A parent with one nearby child and one across the country will usually choose a primary with the distant child as alternate.

What Happens When an Attorney Begins Acting

When a springing power of attorney activates — or when an immediate EPA is first used after the parent loses capacity — the attorney must give written notice of acting under Section 33 to anyone the parent designated and, where practicable, to the parent. A prescribed form is not mandatory.

Failure to give notice does not invalidate the appointment or affect the attorney's authority to act under the EPA. The notice gives the designated recipient and, where practicable, the parent written notice that the attorney has started acting.

This notice requirement exists so other family members know that someone has started managing the parent's affairs. It creates transparency and gives other interested parties the opportunity to monitor or challenge the attorney's actions if needed.

The Accounting Template

Our PEI Power of Attorney & Personal Directive Kit includes a pre-formatted financial accounting ledger designed to satisfy the statutory duty to account. It tracks:

• Opening inventory of all assets and liabilities
• Monthly income from all sources (pensions, investments, rental income)
• Every expenditure with date, payee, amount, and purpose
• Annual summary suitable for filing with the CRA and, if required, presenting to family members or the court

Starting with a structured template from day one is significantly easier than trying to reconstruct records after months of managing someone else's finances from memory. The kit also covers the witness screening and execution requirements so the underlying documents are properly set up before the attorney's duties even begin.

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