How to Get Power of Attorney in New Brunswick

The Two Documents You Actually Need

New Brunswick splits power of attorney into two separate instruments under the Enduring Powers of Attorney Act (enacted July 1, 2020). A Property EPA covers finances, bank accounts, tax filings, and real estate. A Personal Care EPA covers healthcare decisions, living arrangements, diet, and social services. You can create one or both, and they can sit in a single combined document or stand alone.

The critical distinction that trips most families up: a Property EPA — or any combined EPA that includes property powers — requires a practicing New Brunswick lawyer to witness the signing and certify the grantor's capacity. A standalone Personal Care EPA does not. You can execute a Personal Care EPA with two independent adult witnesses instead.

This mandatory lawyer rule means you cannot fully DIY a financial power of attorney in New Brunswick the way you might in Ontario or British Columbia. But you can do most of the preparation yourself before the lawyer meeting, which keeps billable hours to a minimum.

Step 1: Decide Who Will Serve as Attorney

Your attorney must be at least 19 years old and mentally capable. For a Property EPA, they cannot be an undischarged bankrupt. No one who provides paid health or support services to the grantor can serve — unless that caregiver is a spouse, common-law partner, or close family member.

Consider appointing a monitor alongside the property attorney. A monitor is an independent third party (often a second child or a trusted family friend) who has the right to request financial records and review the attorney's transactions. It adds accountability without requiring court oversight.

If you want to name more than one attorney, decide upfront whether they must act unanimously or can act independently. Unanimous authority is safer for large transactions but creates logistical headaches if one attorney is out of province. Independent authority is more practical for day-to-day banking but requires trust.

Step 2: Prepare Your Information Package

Before you schedule the lawyer appointment, gather:

• A complete list of the grantor's assets (bank accounts, investments, RRSPs, TFSAs, real estate with Property Identification Numbers)
• A list of all liabilities (mortgages, credit cards, lines of credit, personal loans)
• The grantor's income sources (CPP, OAS, private pensions, rental income)
• Contact information for the grantor's primary care physician (especially if including personal care powers)
• The full legal names and dates of birth of all proposed attorneys and monitors

Showing up to the lawyer meeting with this organized saves you two or three billable hours that would otherwise be spent with the lawyer asking you questions you could have answered at the kitchen table.

Step 3: Choose Between Immediate and Springing Powers

An immediate EPA takes effect the moment it's signed. The attorney can walk into a bank the next day and present it. A springing EPA only activates when a specific condition is met — usually a formal determination that the grantor has lost capacity, documented through a capacity assessment.

Personal care powers are always springing by law. They only activate when the grantor loses the capacity to make their own care decisions. Property powers can be either.

Most families setting up an EPA for an aging parent choose springing for property too, because the parent wants to keep managing their own finances as long as possible. But if the parent is already struggling with bills or facing early cognitive decline, immediate powers may be more practical.

Step 4: Execute the Document

For a Property EPA (or combined document), the process is:

1. The grantor meets with a practicing lawyer who is a member of the Law Society of New Brunswick
2. The lawyer reviews the terms of the EPA with the grantor
3. The grantor signs and dates the document in the lawyer's presence
4. The lawyer signs a certificate confirming they witnessed the signing and assessed the grantor's capacity

This can happen in person or via live audiovisual communication — New Brunswick permanently authorized remote witnessing in December 2022. If done remotely, the lawyer and grantor sign identical counterpart copies, and the document must include a statement that it was executed electronically under Section 4.1 of the Act.

For a standalone Personal Care EPA, the grantor signs in front of either a lawyer or two independent adult witnesses. Witnesses must be at least 19 and cannot be named as attorneys or be the spouse or child of a named attorney.

Step 5: Distribute Copies

The original EPA goes into secure storage — a home safe, safety deposit box, or with the lawyer. Then distribute certified copies:

• Property EPA copies to every financial institution where the grantor has accounts
• Personal Care EPA copies to the grantor's primary care physician and any specialists involved in ongoing treatment
• A copy to each named attorney so they have the document ready if they need to act

Banks can take weeks to review and accept an EPA. Getting copies on file before a crisis means the attorney can act immediately when the time comes rather than waiting for a compliance department to process an unfamiliar document during an emergency.

What This Process Costs

Lawyer fees for drafting and executing an EPA in New Brunswick typically run $500 to $1,500+ for a straightforward document. Complex estates with multiple properties, business interests, or blended family dynamics push that higher. A standalone Personal Care EPA executed with two witnesses costs nothing in government fees — the only expense is printing.

If the EPA covers property and the attorney will eventually need to sell real estate, registering the EPA with Service New Brunswick's Land Registry costs $85 per parcel. That step isn't required at execution but must happen before any property transaction.

The New Brunswick Power of Attorney Kit walks through each of these steps with worksheets for organizing your asset information, a signing-day checklist, and templates for the copy-distribution letters — so the lawyer appointment itself is as short and inexpensive as possible.

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