Power of Attorney for Nursing Home Admission in New Brunswick

The Admission That Changes Everything

Nursing home admission in New Brunswick isn't just a healthcare decision — it's a financial one. The province's long-term care system involves a clinical assessment, a means-based payment calculation, and the Standard Family Contribution Policy that can require adult children to contribute to a parent's care costs. If you're acting under a power of attorney, you need both personal care authority (to consent to placement) and property authority (to manage the financial obligations).

A single EPA that covers only one domain leaves a gap that delays admission, creates conflict between siblings, and can force the family into a court application at the worst possible time.

What Authority You Need for Placement

Personal Care EPA: This authorizes you to consent to nursing home admission on behalf of a parent who lacks capacity. Without it, the facility cannot legally admit someone who can't consent for themselves — unless a court-ordered Representation Order under the SDMRA is in place.

Property EPA: This authorizes you to manage the financial side — paying the assessed contribution from the parent's income and assets, selling the family home if necessary, dealing with the provincial payment structure, and potentially navigating the Family Contribution Policy.

If your parent executed both EPAs while they still had capacity, you're covered. If they only signed a personal care EPA (which doesn't require a lawyer), you may be able to consent to placement but not access their bank accounts to pay for it.

The Provincial Assessment Process

New Brunswick's long-term care admission process runs through the Department of Social Development:

1. Clinical assessment. An Extra-Mural Program (EMP) nurse or other authorized assessor evaluates the parent's care needs. This determines whether they qualify for a nursing home level of care.
2. Waitlist placement. Once assessed, the parent goes on a regional waitlist. Wait times vary dramatically by region — facilities in Fredericton and Saint John often have longer waits than rural areas.
3. Financial assessment. The province calculates the parent's contribution based on their income (CPP, OAS, private pensions, investment income) and assets. The assessed daily rate varies by income level.
4. Admission. When a bed becomes available, the family typically has 24 to 48 hours to accept or decline. Declining may move the parent back on the waitlist.

As the attorney for property, you'll need to provide the financial information for the assessment — recent tax returns, bank statements, pension statements, and a list of assets. Having these organized before the assessment prevents delays.

The Standard Family Contribution Policy

This is where nursing home placement becomes a family financial issue. New Brunswick's Family Contribution Policy can require adult children to contribute to a parent's care costs when the parent's own income and assets are insufficient. The policy assesses each adult child's ability to pay based on their household income.

The policy creates friction in nearly every family it touches. Siblings with different income levels pay different amounts. Adult children who provided years of unpaid caregiving at home pay the same formula rate as siblings who live across the country. And the whole system runs on self-reported income, which breeds suspicion among siblings about whether everyone is disclosing honestly.

As the attorney for property, your job is to manage the parent's financial obligations — not to mediate between siblings about their individual contributions. But in practice, you'll be fielding questions from everyone involved. Having transparent, detailed financial records of the parent's income and expenses is the single most effective way to keep those conversations from escalating.

Selling the Family Home to Fund Care

When nursing home costs exceed the parent's income, selling the family home often becomes necessary. Under a property EPA, the attorney has the authority to sell real property — but there are specific steps in New Brunswick:

• Register the EPA at the Land Registry. Before a sale can proceed, the EPA must be registered as an encumbrance on the property title through the Service New Brunswick PLANET system. The fee is $85 per parcel ($84 registration plus $1 Land Titles Assurance fee). Paper filings incur a $100 surcharge.
• Get a proper appraisal. The attorney has a fiduciary obligation to obtain fair market value. Selling a parent's home to a relative at below-market price is a breach of duty, even if the intention is to "keep it in the family."
• Account for every dollar. Under Regulation 2020-43, the sale proceeds must be tracked from the moment they enter the parent's accounts. Document the listing price, sale price, realtor commissions, legal fees, and where the net proceeds are deposited.

The sale may also trigger considerations under the new probate tax structure (effective June 2026). If the parent dies shortly after the sale, the cash proceeds from the home sale are now part of the probatable estate at the 1.5% tier — whereas jointly held property with right of survivorship would have passed outside probate entirely. This is worth discussing with a lawyer before listing.

What to Do Without an EPA

If your parent needs nursing home placement but never signed EPAs, you're facing the SDMRA emergency pathway. You'll need:

1. A Form 3 Capacity Assessment Report from a physician, nurse practitioner, or psychologist ($500 to $2,500)
2. A court application under Rule 71.1 for a Representation Order ($125 filing fee plus legal costs)
3. Service on all adult family members aged 19+ with a 20-day objection window

This process takes weeks at minimum — often longer if any family member objects. Meanwhile, the nursing home bed may be offered to someone else, and the parent remains wherever they currently are, potentially receiving inadequate care.

The gap between "your parent needs a nursing home" and "you have legal authority to arrange one" can be months if no EPA exists. Every week of that gap is a week where someone is making informal decisions without legal backing, financial institutions are declining transactions, and the family is accumulating stress that an EPA signed six months earlier would have prevented entirely.

The New Brunswick Power of Attorney Kit includes a long-term care financial planning worksheet, a pre-admission document organizer, and the record-keeping templates that keep the property attorney's obligations clear throughout the entire nursing home transition.

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