No Power of Attorney: Getting Guardianship for a Father in Brockville

The situation

Alejandro was 74 and had lived alone in Brockville since his wife died several years earlier. He managed his own finances, paid his own bills, and never got around to signing a power of attorney — a legal document that lets a person name someone to make financial or personal care decisions on their behalf if they ever cannot. He was healthy, independent, and it never felt urgent.

Then he had a stroke. He survived, but the stroke left him with significant cognitive impairment. He could no longer track his bills, understand his bank statements, or safely manage the roughly $180,000 he held across a chequing account, a savings account, and a small investment portfolio. His two adult children, Diego, who worked in a warehouse, and Giulia, who worked as an administrative assistant, stepped in to help. That is when they discovered that helping was not the same as having legal authority to act.

The legal problem

In Ontario, being someone's child, spouse, or closest relative gives you no automatic legal right to manage their money or make decisions on their behalf once they lose the capacity to do it themselves. That authority has to come from a document the person signed while still capable — typically a power of attorney for property and a power of attorney for personal care — or, if no such document exists, from a court order.

Alejandro's bank froze meaningful activity on his accounts as soon as staff had concerns about his capacity. Diego and Giulia could not pay his property taxes from his own funds, could not move money to cover his rehabilitation costs, and could not make decisions about his long-term care placement with any legal backing. The bank was not being difficult; it was following the law. Without a valid power of attorney, the only way to get that authority is to apply to the Superior Court to be appointed as Alejandro's guardian under the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 — Ontario's statute governing decision-making for people who become incapable.

Guardianship comes in two forms that often get confused. Guardianship of property covers finances, bank accounts, property, and paying bills. Guardianship of the person covers personal care decisions such as where someone lives and what medical treatment they receive. A family can need one, the other, or both, and each has its own evidentiary requirements.

There was also a background risk the family had not considered. If no family member steps forward to apply for guardianship of an incapable person's property, the Public Guardian and Trustee — a government office that acts as a decision-maker of last resort — can become involved by default once a financial institution or care provider flags the situation. That outcome is not necessarily harmful, but it removes the family from day-to-day control of decisions that Diego and Giulia felt strongly should stay with them, and it is far simpler to avoid than to unwind once it has started.

What we did

1. Confirmed no alternative existed. Before recommending a guardianship application, we checked whether Alejandro had signed any power of attorney at any point, including informally with a previous lawyer. He had not. We also confirmed that a guardianship application was necessary rather than, say, a more limited step, because his incapacity affected both his finances and his ability to make personal care decisions.
2. Arranged a capacity assessment. A guardianship of property application generally requires a formal capacity assessment by a qualified assessor, who evaluates whether the person can understand and appreciate the consequences of decisions about their property. Alejandro's treating physicians had already documented significant cognitive impairment from the stroke, which supported the assessment and kept the process from dragging.
3. Prepared the joint application. Diego and Giulia applied together to be appointed joint guardians of both property and personal care for their father. Joint guardianship means both must generally agree before major decisions are made, which the siblings wanted, since they intended to manage their father's affairs together and did not want one of them making unilateral calls.
4. Built the management plan. An application for guardianship of property must include a management plan setting out how the proposed guardian intends to handle the incapable person's finances — expected income, expenses, and how the property will be protected and invested. We put together a plan reflecting Alejandro's modest, low-risk holdings: covering his rehabilitation and eventual care costs, keeping his home secure and insured, and preserving the balance conservatively rather than taking any investment risk with his money.
5. Gave notice to family. The Substitute Decisions Act requires notice of a guardianship application to be served on certain close relatives, so that anyone with a concern about the proposed guardians has a chance to raise it before the court decides. We identified and served the required relatives and prepared the supporting affidavits explaining why Diego and Giulia, rather than anyone else, were the appropriate guardians.
6. Addressed the bond requirement. Guardians of property are ordinarily required to post a bond — a form of security that protects the incapable person's estate if the guardian mismanages the funds — unless the court is satisfied it can be waived or reduced. Given the modest size of the estate and the family's circumstances, we asked the court to dispense with the bond, supported by the transparency of the management plan and Alejandro's affairs being otherwise unencumbered.
7. Brought the application before the court. With no one contesting the application and the medical evidence clear, the matter proceeded as an uncontested guardianship application, decided by a judge on the written record rather than at a lengthy hearing.

The outcome

About five months after the stroke, the court appointed Diego and Giulia as joint guardians of property and joint guardians of the person for their father. The order let them access his accounts, pay his outstanding property taxes and rehabilitation costs directly from his own funds, and make binding decisions about his ongoing care.

The bond requirement was waived given the size of the estate and the completeness of the management plan the siblings had filed, which saved them an ongoing cost that would otherwise have eaten into Alejandro's modest savings every year the guardianship continued. His roughly $180,000 in accounts and investments remained intact and under joint control, managed conservatively as the plan had promised.

The process took months rather than days, which is typical for an uncontested guardianship application once a capacity assessment, notice period, and court scheduling are factored in. For a family managing a parent's urgent bills in the meantime, that gap can be stressful — Diego and Giulia bridged some of Alejandro's immediate costs from their own pockets before the order came through, which they were later reimbursed for from his estate once they had legal authority to do so. Once the order was granted, though, it gave them exactly what they needed: clear, court-backed authority to act for their father, with no ambiguity for his bank, his care providers, or each other.

What you can learn from this