Ontario Power of Attorney Forms: How to Fill In the Free Government Kit

Last updated: October 6, 2026

Ontario Power of Attorney Forms: How to Fill In the Free Government Kit

Quick answer: Ontario's free power of attorney forms come in one kit from the Ministry of the Attorney General — Publication 300975, with a Continuing Power of Attorney for Property and a Power of Attorney for Personal Care. Download it from the official links below, fill in the parts that apply to you, print it, and sign it in front of two witnesses who are not on the excluded list. You do not need a lawyer or a notary for it to be valid, and you do not register it anywhere. The witness step decides whether the finished document works, so read that section before anyone picks up a pen.

A power of attorney is the document that lets someone you trust act for you if you cannot. Ontario has two kinds — one for money and property, one for health care and personal decisions — and the province gives both forms away for free. What the forms do not give you is much help with the choices inside them, or with the rule about who is allowed to sign as a witness.

This guide walks through the official kit part by part, in plain language, and pays particular attention to the signing step — the one that decides whether the finished document works.

Download the official Ontario power of attorney kit

The kit is published by the Ministry of the Attorney General through Publications Ontario. We link to the government's own files rather than hosting a copy: the kit is revised from time to time (the current edition is marked ON00142E, 2024/11), and downloading it from the Ministry means you always have the current version.

Two other free routes, if a form-and-pen approach is not for you:

• Community Legal Education Ontario's guided power of attorney tool asks questions and builds the documents from your answers.
• Our own Power of Attorney for Property template lets you type the document online, box by box, and book the signing at the end. Every care and decision-making template is collected in the care and health templates.

The Ministry's overview page, Make a power of attorney, is worth a read too. It is short, and it lists the situations where the government itself recommends a lawyer instead of the kit.

Before you start: which form do you need?

Most people fill in both forms, because they cover different halves of life. A detailed comparison lives in power of attorney for personal care vs. property; this is the short version.

Three things to know before filling in either one:

• You must be mentally capable when you sign. For property, that means you know roughly what you own, who depends on you financially, what authority you are handing over, and that the attorney could misuse it. For personal care, it means you can judge whether the person truly cares about you and understand that they may make care decisions for you.
• A new one cancels the old one. Each form opens by revoking any earlier power of attorney of the same kind. If you already have one you want to keep — including a power of attorney you signed through your bank — talk to a lawyer before signing the kit.
• The word "attorney" does not mean lawyer. Your attorney can be a spouse, an adult child, a friend, or a trust company. Ask them first, and make sure they are willing.

How to fill in the Continuing Power of Attorney for Property

The property form has nine numbered parts. Parts 2, 3 and 5 are optional and can be left blank; the others either need your details or are already worded for you.

Part 1 — Appointing your attorney

Write your full legal name in the first blank, then the full name of each person you are appointing. Anyone 18 or older can be your attorney for property. You can name one person or several.

One person keeps things simple for banks and avoids disagreements. Several people spread the load and add oversight. The Public Guardian and Trustee can only be named if it has agreed in writing first.

Part 2 — Joint or separate attorneys

Fill this in only if you named more than one attorney. If you want each of them to be able to act alone, write the words "jointly and severally" in the space. If you leave it blank, the law requires them to make every decision together.

Acting together gives you a built-in double-check. Acting separately means a holiday or a hospital stay does not freeze your finances. If you choose "together", use Part 5 to say whose decision wins when they disagree — otherwise a disagreement can end up in court.

Part 3 — Substitute attorney

Optional, and worth considering if you named only one attorney. A substitute steps in if your attorney refuses, resigns, dies, becomes incapable, or is removed by a court, and has the same authority as the person they replace.

Part 4 — Authority of your attorney

This part is already worded, and you do not write anything in it. It gives your attorney authority to do anything with your property that you could do yourself — except make a will — and it confirms that the authority continues if you become mentally incapable. That last sentence is what makes the document a continuing power of attorney. Do not cross it out.

Part 5 — Conditions and restrictions

Optional, and the part where the most damage can be done with good intentions. You can limit your attorney here — to certain accounts, or away from a particular property — or require them to consult someone before major decisions. Attach extra pages if you need room, and sign and date each one.

Two cautions from the Ministry's own guidelines:

• Narrow authority can backfire. If you become incapable and your attorney cannot reach part of your property, someone may have to apply to become your guardian to manage the rest — with a management plan and possibly a security bond.
• A "springing" condition needs a trigger. If you write that the document only takes effect when you become incapable, say how that will be confirmed — for example, a letter from your doctor. If you do not, a formal capacity assessment will be needed before your attorney can act.

One practical rule from the province: if the power of attorney may ever be used to sell or mortgage land, keep personal information off it. Ontario's land registration system does not accept a power of attorney that contains copies or details of government ID, bank accounts, passports, or birth certificates. Name accounts in words ("my chequing account at my bank"), not by number.

Part 6 — Date of effectiveness

Already worded: the document takes effect on the day it is signed and witnessed, unless Part 5 says otherwise. That does not mean your attorney takes over — you keep managing your own affairs while you are able to.

The kit suggests another way to keep control: leave the document in effect, but give the signed original to a trusted person, such as your lawyer or accountant, with written instructions about when to release it to your attorney. Your attorney then does not have to prove to banks and pension plans that the power of attorney has come into effect.

Part 7 — Compensation

Already worded. Unless you say otherwise, your attorney may take the fee set by regulation — the kit gives it as 3% of money received and paid out, plus 3/5 of 1% of the average annual value of your assets, shared between attorneys if there are several. If you want your attorney to act for free, or for a fixed amount, write that in Part 5.

Part 8 — Your signature

Print the form first — the kit states that it must be printed and signed to be valid. Read every page again. Then, only when both witnesses are in the room, sign, add the date in the YYYY/MM/DD format the form uses, and write your full current address.

Do not sign at home "to save time" before the appointment. A signature the witnesses did not see is not a witnessed signature, and the fix is a fresh copy signed properly.

Part 9 — Witness signatures

Each witness signs, prints their name, writes their address, and dates it — in your presence and in each other's presence. Who is allowed to be a witness is the subject of its own section below, because getting it wrong can make the whole document ineffective.

How to fill in the Power of Attorney for Personal Care

The personal care form has seven parts. It follows the same pattern as the property form, with two important differences: who may be your attorney, and the space for instructions.

Part 1 — Appointing your attorney

Write your name and the name of each attorney. Your attorney for personal care must be at least 16. The form itself sets one restriction worth reading twice: you may not appoint someone who is paid to provide you with health care or residential, social, training or support services — your landlord, a care worker where you live, your social worker, counsellor, teacher, doctor, nurse, therapist, homemaker or attendant — unless that person is also your spouse, partner, or relative.

You can appoint different people for different areas — one for health care, another for housing — by naming them here and writing the split in Part 5.

Part 2 — Joint or separate attorneys

The same "jointly and severally" choice as on the property form. Leave it blank and multiple attorneys must decide together.

Part 3 — Substitute attorney

Optional. The restrictions in Part 1 apply to a substitute too.

Part 4 — Authority of your attorney

Already worded. Your attorney may make any personal care decision that you have become mentally incapable of making yourself, including giving or refusing consent to treatment under the Health Care Consent Act, 1996. The authority is decision by decision: if you can no longer manage health care but can still decide where you live, the housing decision stays yours.

Part 5 — Instructions, conditions and restrictions

Optional, and the heart of this form for most people. This is where you tell your attorney what you want, not just who decides:

• staying in your own home for as long as possible
• respecting religious or cultural rules about food
• your wishes about life support or other end-of-life treatment
• people your attorney should consult before deciding

A "living will" or advance directive is not the same as a power of attorney — it records wishes but names no one. If you already have one, you can attach it: identify it in Part 5 by name and date, and initial each page. Talk your wishes through with your attorney, and with your doctor if they concern medical treatment, so the words on the page mean what you intend.

The kit does not cover special powers such as authorizing a forced assessment or admission to a psychiatric facility; those need professional advice. Organ donation is also separate — register at beadonor.ca or at a ServiceOntario centre.

Parts 6 and 7 — Your signature and the witnesses

Exactly as on the property form: print it, sign only in front of both witnesses, add the date and your address, and have each witness sign, print their name, and date it in front of you and each other.

Who can — and cannot — witness your power of attorney

Both forms need two witnesses, present together, who each sign. Section 10(2) of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 — applied to personal care by section 48(2) — says these people cannot be witnesses:

• the attorney you are appointing, or that attorney's spouse or partner
• your own spouse or partner
• your child, or anyone you have shown a settled intention to treat as your child
• a person whose property is under guardianship, or who has a guardian of the person
• anyone under 18

A "partner" here means someone you have lived with for at least a year in a close personal relationship, so a long-term partner you never married is excluded too.

Look at that list next to the people usually in the room at a family signing: a spouse, the adult children, the son-in-law who has agreed to be attorney. Often nobody present is allowed to sign. And the consequence is not cosmetic — under sections 10(4) and 48(4) of the Act, a power of attorney that does not meet the witness rules is not effective, unless a court is later asked to declare it effective. The problem tends to surface at the bank counter, at the moment the document is needed — when the person who made it may no longer be able to sign a new one.

Good witnesses are unrelated adults: a neighbour, a friend who is not being appointed, a co-worker — or a notary office, which supplies both.

The Act also allows the witnesses to take part through live audio-video technology in some cases (section 3.1), but only if at least one of them is a lawyer or paralegal licensed by the Law Society of Ontario and everyone signs at the same time. The kit itself points you to a legal professional for that route. At Minute Notary, powers of attorney are signed in person.

If the person signing cannot read the form, someone must read the whole document aloud to them in front of both witnesses. The kit's guidelines then give a short statement for the witnesses to add above their signatures, confirming that it was read aloud and that the person appeared to understand and approve it.

After it is signed

• Nothing to register. A power of attorney is not filed with any government office. The kit specifically asks you not to send it to the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee.
• Tell people where it is. Your attorney needs to be able to find the original quickly. Give the name and phone number of your attorney to your family, your doctor, and your bank.
• Show it to your bank early. The Ministry recommends taking a copy to each bank you use, so any questions are settled while you can still answer them. Some institutions also ask for a notarized or certified true copy later on.
• Keep the wallet card. The kit ends with a detachable card listing your attorneys' contact details for emergencies.
• When your attorney starts acting, some banks ask them to swear that the power of attorney has not been revoked. We publish a free statutory declaration that a power of attorney remains in effect for exactly that.

To cancel a power of attorney while you are still capable, write the revocation on paper, sign and date it, and have it witnessed the same way as the original — two qualified witnesses. Then tell your attorney, your bank, and everyone who knew about the old one.

Six mistakes that make a kit power of attorney fail

1. Signing before the witnesses arrive. The signature must happen in front of both of them.
2. Using a spouse, child, or the attorney's partner as a witness. A common problem, and it makes the document not effective.
3. Naming two attorneys and leaving Part 2 blank by accident. They must then act together on everything — fine if intended, a problem if one moves abroad.
4. Over-restricting Part 5. A power of attorney that cannot reach the house or the RRSP may still leave the family applying for guardianship.
5. A springing condition with no trigger. "Only if I become incapable" without saying who confirms it means a formal assessment later.
6. Using a generic online form from another province or country. Without the continuing wording in Part 4, a property power of attorney stops working exactly when you become incapable — the moment it was meant for.

More on the continuing wording and how a notary handles the signing is in continuing power of attorney for property in Ontario.

When the free kit is not enough

The kit is designed for straightforward situations. The province itself recommends a lawyer if you:

• have already given someone power over your bank accounts through your bank, or are thinking of it
• run or own a business
• have a difficult family situation
• own property in another province or country

We would add: any doubt about the signer's capacity, a plan to name a trust company, or a wish to keep an earlier power of attorney alive alongside the new one. The Law Society Referral Service can connect you with a lawyer for a free initial consultation, and Legal Aid Ontario helps people with low income.

Signing your kit with Minute Notary

You do not need a notary for a power of attorney to be valid. What you need is two qualified witnesses at the same time — and that is often the hard part. When you sign with us, the notary acts as one witness, checks ID, and makes sure the signing is done in the right order — and if you cannot find a qualified second witness, we can provide one (an additional charge applies).

Powers of attorney are signed in person, at our Orléans office or on a mobile visit to your home, hospital, or care residence in Ottawa, Orléans, Barrhaven, Kanata, and Nepean.

Couples signing together get a couple signing discount — please email us for a rate.

Please bring:

• Both forms printed and filled in, with every signature and date line blank. We witness the signing; we do not fill in, draft, or advise on the contents.
• Valid government photo ID for the person signing.
• The names and addresses of your attorneys, already written in Part 1.

Full details are on the power of attorney service page. If you are unsure whether the kit fits your situation, contact us or call (613) 434-5555 before booking — we would rather tell you to see a lawyer first than witness a document that will not do what you need.

Minute Notary is an Ontario Notary Public and Commissioner for Taking Affidavits. This article is general information about the Ontario Powers of Attorney kit and the signing formalities in the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 — not legal advice. Notaries at Minute Notary do not draft powers of attorney or advise on their contents; for advice about your own situation, consult a lawyer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I get a free power of attorney form in Ontario?

The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General publishes a free Powers of Attorney kit, Publication 300975, through Publications Ontario. It contains both forms — the Continuing Power of Attorney for Property and the Power of Attorney for Personal Care — with step-by-step guidelines, in a fillable version and a version made for printing and completing by hand, in English and French. Community Legal Education Ontario also offers a free guided web tool on its Steps to Justice site. The Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee no longer mails printed forms.

Does a power of attorney have to be notarized or registered in Ontario?

No. A power of attorney made with the Ontario kit is valid when it is signed in front of two qualified witnesses under the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992. It is not registered anywhere, and the kit asks you not to send the completed form to the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee. A notary becomes useful afterwards, when a bank, an investment firm, or a foreign authority asks for a notarized or certified copy.

Who can witness a power of attorney in Ontario?

Any two adults who are not on the excluded list in section 10(2) of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992. The excluded people are the attorney and the attorney's spouse or partner, your own spouse or partner, your child or anyone you treat as your child, a person whose property is under guardianship or who has a guardian of the person, and anyone under 18. The same list applies to a power of attorney for personal care. Both witnesses must be present together when you sign.

Can I fill in the Ontario power of attorney form on my computer?

Yes. The fillable version of the kit is built for the free Adobe Acrobat Reader; if it does not open in your web browser, save it and open it in Adobe Reader, or use the print version and fill it in by pen. Either way, the kit says the form must be printed and signed to be valid, so the typing is only the preparation.

What does jointly and severally mean on a power of attorney form?

It means "together and separately". If you name two or more attorneys and write "jointly and severally" in Part 2, each of them can act alone. If you leave Part 2 blank, the law requires your attorneys to make every decision together, which gives you a double-check but can stall things when one of them is away or ill.

How much does it cost to have Minute Notary witness a kit power of attorney?

Powers of attorney are signed in person, at the Orléans office or on a mobile visit within the Ottawa area, and the notary acts as one witness; an additional charge applies for an additional witness. One power of attorney is $115 and both powers of attorney together are $200, plus HST; a will plus both powers of attorney at the same appointment is $240 plus HST. A mobile visit adds a flat $60 travel fee, charged once per trip. Bring the forms printed, filled in, and unsigned.