End of Life Planning in Western Australia
Four Documents, One Plan
End-of-life planning in Western Australia isn't a single document or a single conversation. It's a framework of four legal instruments, each covering a different domain, that together give you control over what happens to your body, your care, your finances, and your estate. Get all four right and your family is protected. Miss even one and the gaps create confusion at exactly the wrong time.
Here's the framework:
| Document | What It Controls | When It Takes Effect | Governing Law |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advance Health Directive (AHD) | Specific medical treatment decisions | While alive, when you lack capacity | Guardianship and Administration Act 1990, Part 9B |
| Enduring Power of Guardianship (EPG) | Personal and lifestyle decisions (accommodation, support, medical decisions not in the AHD) | While alive, when you lack capacity | Guardianship and Administration Act 1990, Part 9A |
| Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) | Financial and property management | Can operate immediately or upon incapacity | Guardianship and Administration Act 1990, Part VIII |
| Will | Estate distribution | After death | Wills Act 1970 |
WA law creates a strict separation between these domains. Your enduring guardian can't access your bank accounts. Your financial attorney can't consent to medical treatment. Your executor has no authority until you die. Overlapping, conflicting, or missing documents create the kind of legal tangles that end up before the State Administrative Tribunal.
Step 1: The Advance Health Directive
The AHD sits at the top of WA's statutory hierarchy of treatment decision-makers. When you can't speak for yourself, a valid AHD overrides everyone — your family, your enduring guardian, even your treating doctor (with narrow exceptions).
The prescribed form has six parts. Three are mandatory:
- Part 1: Your personal details
- Part 4: At least one specific treatment decision (consent or refusal)
- Part 6: Signatures and witnessing
Three are optional (Parts 2, 3, and 5) — but if you skip them, you must physically cross them out on the form. Leaving them blank risks the AHD being challenged as incomplete.
The most important part — and the one most people get wrong — is Part 4. Vague language like "no extraordinary measures" gives clinicians nothing to work with. Be specific: which treatments, under what conditions, consent or refusal. Consulting your GP before completing this section helps translate your values into clinical language.
Our post on completing the AHD form walks through each part in detail.
Step 2: The Enduring Power of Guardianship
Your AHD can't cover every scenario. Medical situations arise that you didn't anticipate, and someone needs the legal authority to make decisions on your behalf. That's what the EPG does — it appoints an enduring guardian to handle personal and lifestyle decisions when you lose capacity.
Your enduring guardian can:
- Consent to or refuse medical treatments not specifically covered by your AHD
- Decide where you live (your home, with family, in residential aged care)
- Choose support services and approve changes to your care plan
- Make decisions about participation in activities and social engagement
Your enduring guardian cannot:
- Make financial decisions (that's the EPA)
- Override your AHD's specific treatment decisions
- Act while you still have capacity
- Consent to voluntary assisted dying on your behalf
Choosing the right guardian matters. You can appoint a sole guardian, joint guardians (who must agree unanimously — risky if they disagree), or a substitute guardian who steps in if the primary appointee can't act. The EPG must be witnessed by two independent adults, at least one authorised under the Oaths, Affidavits and Statutory Declarations Act 2005. The guardian must also sign an acceptance section, witnessed separately.
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Step 3: The Enduring Power of Attorney
The EPA handles your financial affairs during incapacity. It's a separate document from the EPG, governed by different provisions of the same Act.
Key considerations:
- Immediate or incapacity-only? You can draft the EPA to take effect immediately (useful if you want someone managing finances while you're still competent but physically limited) or only upon incapacity.
- Landgate registration: If you own real property in WA, your attorney can't deal with it unless the EPA is registered with Landgate. The registration fee is $225.10 (effective 1 July 2026). You need to submit two originally signed copies of the EPA — a detail rarely mentioned on government websites.
- Financial oversight: Your attorney has a legal duty to act in your best interests, keep accurate records, and not mix your finances with their own. Poor record-keeping is one of the most common reasons the SAT revokes an EPA.
Step 4: Your Will
The Will takes over where the other three documents stop — at the point of death. It names your executor, distributes your estate, and can nominate guardians for minor children.
In WA, probate applications go through the Supreme Court's eCourts Portal, with a flat filing fee of $418. The executor must wait 14 days from the date of death before lodging the application.
Your Will doesn't affect your end-of-life medical care, but it intersects with planning in two ways:
- Funeral preferences: If you have specific wishes about burial vs cremation, these belong in your Will. The Department of Communities Bereavement Assistance Program will only fund cremation if the Will explicitly requests it.
- Coordination: Your executor, your enduring guardian, and your financial attorney may be different people. They need to know about each other and be able to work together.
The Witnessing Requirements
WA's witnessing rules apply to the AHD, EPG, and EPA — and they're stricter than many people realise.
Both the AHD and EPG require two independent adult witnesses, at least one of whom must be authorised to witness statutory declarations under the Oaths, Affidavits and Statutory Declarations Act 2005. Authorised witnesses include currently registered doctors, pharmacists, nurses, lawyers, JPs, and police officers. Retired professionals don't qualify.
Common witnessing errors that invalidate documents:
- Using a family member who's also the appointed guardian
- Having witnesses sign on different days or at different locations
- Using a retired professional who lost authorised status when they stopped practising
Our witnessing requirements post has the full list of authorised witness categories.
Making Your Documents Accessible
Executing the documents is only half the job. They need to be findable during an emergency.
My Health Record: Upload your AHD to My Health Record via myGov. This makes it accessible to any hospital in Australia. Scan at 300dpi in black and white to stay under the file size limit.
GP notification: Give your GP a certified copy of both the AHD and EPG. Ask them to note the documents in your electronic medical record.
Family notification: Tell your enduring guardian, your financial attorney, and your next-of-kin where the originals are stored.
Wallet card: Carry a card noting that advance care planning documents exist, where they're stored, and who your enduring guardian is.
Aged care intake: If entering residential care, provide certified copies to the facility's administration and clinical staff during registration.
More on storage strategy in our post on where to store your AHD in WA.
Review Cycle
WA law doesn't require periodic renewal, but clinical practice and common sense do. The WA Department of Health recommends reviewing your AHD every two to five years. An AHD older than approximately 10 years is vulnerable to being "read down" by clinicians who question whether the treatment decisions still reflect your current values.
Trigger events for an immediate review:
- New health diagnosis
- Major surgery or hospitalisation
- Changes in family relationships (divorce, estrangement, death of your guardian)
- Move into residential aged care
- Significant advances in medical treatment for your condition
When you update, revoke the old AHD formally and execute a new one with fresh witnessing. Annotating the old form doesn't carry the same legal weight.
Pulling It All Together
The Western Australia Advance Directive & Living Will Kit covers the AHD and EPG in a single planning process — treatment decision worksheets, GP consultation prep, witnessing checklists, My Health Record upload instructions, and the Family Conversation Planner. It gives you the practical support that free government forms don't include, without the cost of a Perth solicitor.
End-of-life planning isn't about predicting the future. It's about making sure the people who care about you have clear authority and clear instructions, so they can act on your behalf without guesswork, conflict, or delay.
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