Enduring Guardian Form NSW: How to Appoint Your Healthcare Decision-Maker

The Statutory Form You Must Use

Unlike an advance care directive (which can be written in any format under NSW common law), the enduring guardian appointment must use the specific statutory form prescribed in Schedule 1, Form 1 of the Guardianship Regulation 2016. Using the wrong form — or a generic template from an interstate kit — invalidates the appointment entirely.

The form has several key sections: your personal details and your guardian's details, the functions you are granting, any limitations or binding directions, and the witness certificates. Each section has strict requirements that cannot be improvised.

Who Can Be an Enduring Guardian

Any person aged 18 or over can be appointed, provided they are not a paid professional care provider, accommodation manager, or service provider who receives fees for your daily care. This exclusion exists to prevent conflicts of interest. Someone receiving a federal carer's pension is not disqualified — the rule targets commercial care arrangements, not family caregivers receiving government support.

You can appoint more than one guardian. If you do, you must specify how they operate:

• Jointly: Every decision requires unanimous agreement. The Form 1 lets you state whether the death, resignation, or incapacity of one joint guardian terminates the appointment of the others; you can also name a substitute.
• Jointly and severally: Guardians can act together or independently. If one becomes unable to act, the remaining guardians continue to hold authority.

For most families, jointly and severally is the safer option because it avoids paralysis if one guardian is unavailable during a medical emergency.

Defining the Guardian's Functions

Clause 4 of the form specifies which functions your guardian can exercise. The available categories are:

• Medical and dental treatment decisions
• Accommodation decisions (including aged care placement)
• Personal services (choosing who provides your home care, meal programs, or transport)

You can grant all of these functions or limit the appointment to specific categories. For example, you might grant medical decision-making authority but exclude accommodation decisions if you have strong preferences about where you live that you have already documented in your advance care directive.

Adding Limitations and Binding Directions

Clause 5 is where you insert specific restrictions or mandatory instructions. These are legally binding on your guardian — they cannot override a direction you have explicitly written into this section. Examples include:

• "My guardian must not consent to my placement in residential aged care unless my treating GP certifies in writing that home care is no longer viable"
• "My guardian must consult with [named family member] before consenting to any surgical procedure"
• "My guardian must ensure I am not moved more than 50 kilometres from my current address"

Be precise. Vague directions like "act in my best interests" add nothing — the guardian is already required to do this by law. Specific directions give your guardian clear authority to resist family pressure or institutional convenience.

The Prescribed Witness Requirement

This is where most self-prepared appointments fail. Every signature on the form — yours and each guardian's — must be witnessed by a prescribed witness who then completes a statutory certificate. The eligible witnesses in NSW are:

• An Australian legal practitioner with a current practising certificate
• A registrar of an NSW Local Court
• A foreign lawyer within the meaning of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW)
• An approved employee of the NSW Trustee & Guardian or the Office of the Public Guardian

A Justice of the Peace, your GP, a pharmacist, or a nurse practitioner cannot witness this document. If you get the witnessing wrong, the appointment is void and your guardian has no legal authority — a fact that will surface at the worst possible time, when you are in hospital and unable to redo the paperwork.

The witness must certify that you appeared to understand the nature and effect of the appointment and signed voluntarily. If you and your guardian sign at different times or locations, each signature needs its own witness certificate.

After Completing the Form

Store the original signed form in a secure location — a fireproof safe at home or the NSW Trustee & Guardian's WillSafe repository. Give certified copies to your appointed guardian, your GP, and any specialists managing ongoing conditions. If you are admitted to hospital or entering aged care, provide a copy to the admissions team. NSW has no central registry for enduring guardian appointments, so distribution is your responsibility.

Consider pairing the appointment with a common-law advance care directive that records your specific treatment preferences and a financial enduring power of attorney under the Powers of Attorney Act 2003. The enduring guardian covers healthcare decisions your directive does not anticipate; the power of attorney covers your finances. Together, these three documents form a complete incapacity plan.

The NSW Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes all three documents with a witness execution checklist and a step-by-step guide to the prescribed witness interview.

See more New South Wales guides →