You can appoint someone to be your Enduring Guardian to make accommodation, healthcare, lifestyle and medical decisions on your behalf if you become unable to make your own decisions.
We recommend you seek independent legal advice from a professional such as NSW Trustee and Guardian or a solicitor before making an Enduring Guardianship document.
On this pageAn Enduring Guardianship is a document authorising someone to make lifestyle, health and medical decisions for you.
This could be if you become ill or injured and are unable to make such decisions for yourself.
An Enduring Guardian can influence or decide:
The person you appoint should be someone you trust and who understands the importance of their responsibilities
For more information on eligibility and how to appoint an enduring guardian, visit Service NSW.
You can give directions to your Enduring Guardian about how you want them to perform their role.
An example of a direction you may want to give could be that they seek advice from your doctor or medical specialists before making certain decisions.
You can also make an Advance Care Directive. This is a separate document to help inform what lifestyle and health decisions are to be followed should you not have capacity to make them for yourself.
An Enduring Guardian is the person you legally appoint to make decisions about your health, lifestyle and accommodation in the event you can't make these decisions for yourself. This could be if you become ill or injured.
The Enduring Guardian you authorise in your Enduring Guardianship document can influence or decide:
The person you appoint should be someone you trust and who understands your wishes and the importance of their responsibilities.
Expand all Collapse all Who I can choose to be an Enduring GuardianYou should choose someone you trust such as a spouse, family member or friend.
If you don't have an Enduring Guardian and decisions need to be made on your behalf, a court or tribunal may need to appoint someone to make decisions for you. This is called a Guardianship Order.
It is essential the person you appoint:
There may be a time in your life when you need someone to make important decisions for you. This could be due to a temporary or permanent loss of decision-making ability from illness, injury or disability – this can happen at any time in your life.
Your Enduring Guardian only starts making decisions for you when you are unable to.
A doctor or specialist can be called upon if it is uncertain whether your Enduring Guardian should start making decisions. The appointment continues for as long as you need it unless:
You can provide information to help your Enduring Guardian know how they should use their authority.
For example, you might direct them to seek advice from your doctor or medical specialists before they make certain decisions.
It’s important to remember that directions or limits should be applied thoughtfully as they can remove flexibility in decision making.
Decisions an Enduring Guardian can makeYour Enduring Guardian only makes decisions in the areas you choose, including:
They can't make decisions about:
You can also make an Advance Care Directive. This is a separate document to help inform what lifestyle and health decisions are to be followed should you not have capacity to make them for yourself.
Enduring Guardians can't make financial decisions. To make financial decisions on your behalf, you can appoint someone under an Enduring Power of Attorney. This can be the same person as your Enduring Guardian or someone else you choose.
You can appoint just one person to be your enduring guardian, but its always good to have a backup in case your enduring guardian isn’t in a position to take on the role, or to continue in the role.
If you are appointing more than one guardian, there are two ways you can do this – by appointing multiple enduring guardians or by appointing a substitute enduring guardian, in addition to your first appointed enduring guardian.
Multiple Enduring GuardiansYou can appoint more than one Enduring Guardian, but you need to outline how you want them to make decisions – together (jointly), separately (severally) or both of these (jointly and severally).
Enduring Guardians have the same decision-making areas and need to agree and act together when making decisions.
Make sure you have considered how you want your Enduring Guardians to make decisions if one is unable to carry out the role.
Enduring Guardians can work separately with the same or different decision-making areas. They can make decisions without needing to agree or act together.
Think about the possibility that Enduring Guardians can carry on making decisions if the other one(s) becomes unable to make decisions for you.
Substitute Enduring GuardianYou can appoint another person as a substitute Enduring Guardian who only makes decisions for you if your original guardian is no longer able to.
If you have not appointed a substitute, you no longer have capacity and your Enduring Guardian is no longer able to make decisions for you, anyone concerned for your welfare can make an application to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) to decide who your guardian should be.
Lael is 33 years old and appointed Anh to be her Enduring Guardian 4 years ago.
During this time, Anh has not been required to make any decisions on Lael’s behalf.
Recently, Lael was in a serious car accident and suffered a severe brain injury.
Lael has lost her mental capacity and is unable to make her own decisions, so Anh has become active in his role as her Enduring Guardian.
If Lael regains capacity, then Anh will no longer have authority to make decisions.
NSW Trustee and Guardian provides an independent service at various locations across NSW to prepare your Will, Power of Attorney and Enduring Guardian documents, with packages to suit you.
NSW Trustee and Guardian offers support services if you've legally been appointed as an Enduring Guardian. We can help you understand your role and responsibilities and provide advice and resources.
We can also provide free community education sessions about guardianship in your area, on request.
Learn more about Enduring Guardianship.
Our guide answers common questions about Enduring Guardianship, including what Enduring Guardianship is, why it's important and who you should choose.
