Power of Attorney Compensation Ontario: What Attorneys Can Charge

The Statutory Fee Scale for Property Attorneys

Ontario is one of the few Canadian provinces that prescribes a specific fee structure for attorneys acting under a power of attorney. Under Ontario Regulation 26/95 of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, an attorney for property can claim compensation from the grantor's assets according to three formulas:

3% on capital and income receipts. This covers all money flowing into the grantor's accounts — pension payments, investment income, rental income, proceeds from selling property or assets. If your parent receives $50,000 per year in combined pension and investment income, the receipts fee would be $1,500.

3% on capital and income disbursements. This covers all money going out — care facility payments, utility bills, insurance premiums, property taxes, medical expenses. If you pay out $45,000 per year on behalf of the grantor, the disbursements fee would be $1,350.

0.6% annually on the average value of assets under management. This is the care and management fee, calculated on the average total value of the grantor's property during the year. For a parent with $600,000 in combined assets (home equity, savings, investments), the annual management fee would be $3,600.

In that example, total annual compensation under O. Reg. 26/95 would be approximately $6,450. That's the statutory maximum — the attorney can take less but cannot exceed these rates without a court order.

How the Compensation Works in Practice

A few details that catch people off guard:

The POA document can override the statutory scale. The grantor can include a clause in the CPOA that specifies higher compensation, lower compensation, or no compensation at all. Family members often waive compensation entirely. The statutory scale is a default that applies when the document is silent on the issue.

Compensation is taken from the grantor's assets, not paid by third parties. The attorney pays themselves from the accounts they manage. This is legal and expected under the SDA — but the attorney must document every compensation claim in their records.

The attorney must keep detailed records. O. Reg. 26/95 requires meticulous record-keeping: every receipt, every disbursement, and the annual asset valuation used to calculate the management fee. If the attorney's accounts are challenged, they need to produce this documentation.

Personal care attorneys have no statutory right to compensation. This is a critical distinction. The fee scale under O. Reg. 26/95 applies only to attorneys for property. An attorney for personal care — the person making healthcare, housing, and daily life decisions — cannot claim compensation unless the POA document specifically authorizes it or a court grants it. Most personal care attorneys serve without pay.

Passing Accounts: When Compensation Gets Challenged

Any interested party — the grantor (if capable), a family member, the Children's Lawyer, or the OPGT — can apply to the Superior Court of Justice to have the attorney's accounts formally reviewed. This process is called "passing accounts."

The court filing fee for a passing-of-accounts application is $432. During the review, the attorney must present a complete ledger of all transactions and all compensation claimed. The judge can:

• Approve the compensation as claimed
• Reduce the compensation if it exceeds the statutory scale or isn't supported by adequate records
• Increase the compensation beyond the statutory scale if the attorney's work was exceptionally demanding (managing a complex real estate portfolio, for example, or handling litigation on the grantor's behalf)
• Order the attorney to repay amounts already taken if the compensation was unauthorized

Courts have also awarded additional compensation in cases where the attorney handled responsibilities that went well beyond routine financial management — such as coordinating a major property renovation, managing a contested insurance claim, or dealing with Revenue Canada audits.

Practical Guidelines for Attorneys

If you're serving as an attorney for property in Ontario:

Track everything from day one. The single biggest problem in contested compensation cases is inadequate record-keeping. Maintain a transaction ledger with dates, amounts, descriptions, and supporting documents for every receipt and disbursement.

Calculate compensation quarterly or annually, not transaction-by-transaction. Most attorneys calculate their compensation at the end of each year (or quarter) based on aggregate receipts, disbursements, and average asset values. This is simpler to track and easier to defend.

Document your time. While the statutory scale is based on financial amounts rather than hours worked, a time log helps justify compensation if it's ever challenged. It also supports a request for enhanced compensation if the work was unusually demanding.

Don't mix your money with the grantor's. Keep the grantor's assets in separate accounts from your own. Commingling funds can breach fiduciary duties and make the attorney's accounts difficult to defend, even if no money was misused.

The Ontario Power of Attorney Kit includes a record-keeping ledger template and a compensation calculator built on the O. Reg. 26/95 formulas — designed to help attorneys track transactions and calculate their statutory entitlement accurately.

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