Elder Abuse: New Laws to Reduce Abuse of EPAs (New Zealand)

Tighter rules curb abuse of powers of attorney
By ROB STOCK
Sunday Star Times
Sunday, 21 September 2008

Laws designed to reduce the abuse of enduring powers of attorney (EPAs) come in this week, and the Public Trust is urging people to use them.

The laws, brought in under the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Amendment Act, for the first time put a duty of care on attorneys to act in the best interests of those they are acting for and not to use their power for their own ends.

Richard Calvert, chief legal counsel at Public Trust, says that will make it easier for the courts and police to act when reports reach them of elder abuse, and financial wrongdoing by attorneys.

Until now, Calvert says, the police have dubbed family financial abuse as a civil matter, and elected to do nothing about it.

EPAs are legal documents which people (called donors under the law) draw up like wills when they are still of sound mind. They grant someone else, often one of their children, the power to act on their behalf if they are incapable, perhaps because of age or illness, to look after their financial affairs and personal welfare.

Some of the new safeguards apply only to new EPAs, such as stricter requirements on witnesses, designed to stop unscrupulous children conspiring with unethical lawyers to plunder aged parents' assets.
Others cover EPAs already in place, such as the duty for attorneys to keep records of their actions so the courts, police and family can inspect them.The new laws also allow a variety of people to challenge a donor if they suspect abuse.

Abridged
SOURCE: StuffCo NZ


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