FAQs - Keeping Track of Your Affairs

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An attorney can charge a fee for work they do for you. Unless you have specified a fee in your enduring power of attorney, or a court has made an order setting a fee, there are set maximums. The maximum fee a property attorney can charge is currently 2.5% of the amount of money dealt with per month. The maximum fee a personal attorney can charge for services is currently $15 per hour. This fee will be paid out of your assets. Your attorney must provide an accounting of any money they were paid each year.

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Someone you appoint as your power of attorney must give you an accounting anytime you request one. An accounting is an explanation of what the attorney has done to manage your affairs. It would include things like showing you how money was spent and what money came in. If your attorney will not give you an accounting, you may want to consider ending the power of attorney. You can also contact the Public Guardian and Trustee and ask them to direct the attorney to provide an accounting. If the attorney still refuses, you can make an application to court for an order requiring the attorney to make an accounting.

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The attorney must provide an accounting of any money they paid themselves for their services. If you lose capacity, the accounting is provided to the person named in the power of attorney document for that purpose. If no one is named, the accounting must be made to your most immediate and available family member and the Public Guardian and Trustee.

Attorneys must otherwise prepare accounts on request. If you lack capacity, an accounting can be requested by a person named for that purpose in your power of attorney document. If no person is named, an adult member of your family can request an accounting. If there is both a personal and property attorney, each can request that the other do an accounting. If the attorney does not give an accounting, the Public Guardian and Trustee can be asked to direct that the attorney make an accounting. Even people outside your family can ask the Public Guardian and Trustee to direct that an accounting be made. If the Public Guardian and Trustee has directed that an accounting be made and the attorney still does not give an accounting, an application can be made to court.