Power of Attorney and Advance Personal Plan After Divorce in NT

Your Ex-Spouse May Still Control Your Finances and Medical Decisions

Most people assume that divorce strips their former spouse of any legal authority over their affairs. For wills, that is partly true — Section 15 of the Wills Act 2000 (NT) automatically revokes gifts and appointments to a former spouse. But for Advance Personal Plans, the law is completely different.

Under the Advance Personal Planning Act 2013 (NT), a divorce order does not automatically revoke or terminate the appointment of a former spouse as a decision-maker. If you appointed your spouse as your decision-maker before or during the marriage and you subsequently divorce, that person retains full legal authority to access your bank accounts, sell your real estate, and make critical medical decisions on your behalf — but only if you lose mental capacity (from an accident, stroke, or illness).

This is not a theoretical risk. It is a structural gap in the law that catches people every year.

The Northern Territory Uses APPs, Not Powers of Attorney

Since 17 March 2014, the Northern Territory has replaced the old Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) framework with a single instrument called the Advance Personal Plan (APP). An APP combines financial decision-making authority and medical/personal care authority into one document.

Older EPOAs are separate from APPs; if you have one made before 2014, confirm its status and the correct revocation process. New appointments are made as APPs under the Advance Personal Planning Act 2013.

An APP allows you to:

• Appoint one or more decision-makers to manage your property and financial affairs
• Appoint decision-makers for personal care and welfare (including healthcare and lifestyle choices)
• Make advance care statements setting out your future wishes regarding medical treatment and end-of-life care

How to Revoke an APP Naming Your Former Spouse

To strip your former spouse of decision-making authority, you must be of sound mind and execute a formal revocation. The process involves five steps:

1. Draft a formal revocation document. This can be a complete revocation (cancelling the entire APP) or an amendment (removing only the former spouse and replacing them with someone else).

2. Sign in the presence of an authorised witness. The witness must be a lawyer, justice of the peace, or other authorised person under the Act.

3. File a notice with the NT Land Titles Office. The LTO maintains a register of APPs and any revocations. Without this filing, third parties (like banks) may not know the revocation has occurred.

4. Pay the LTO registration fee. The registration fee is 115 revenue units.

5. Serve written notice on your former spouse. They must be informed that their authority has been revoked.

Why You Should Split Financial and Medical APPs

The Advance Personal Planning Act 2013 allows you to create a single combined APP covering both financial and medical decisions. Post-divorce practitioners strongly advise against this. Instead, create two separate documents:

A financial-only APP — appointing a trusted person to handle bank accounts, property, and investments if you lose capacity.

A medical and personal care-only APP — appointing a trusted person (potentially a different person) to make healthcare and lifestyle decisions.

The practical reason: when a financial decision-maker presents a combined APP to a bank to operate accounts or sell land, the bank's compliance team reviews the entire document. A combined APP exposes your resuscitation instructions, palliative care wishes, and nursing home preferences to bank staff who have no need to see them. This often triggers compliance escalations, delays, and sometimes outright refusals to act. Splitting the documents keeps sensitive medical details private while still giving your financial decision-maker a clean, focused authority to present.

De Facto Couples Face the Same Issue

This revocation requirement is not limited to married couples who divorce. De facto partners who separate face the same exposure. If you appointed a de facto partner as your decision-maker under an APP, separation does not revoke their authority any more than divorce does.

The revocation process is identical — draft the revocation, sign before a witness, file with the LTO, and notify the former partner.

Do Not Forget the Broader Estate Picture

Revoking your APP is one piece of a larger estate restructuring. The Northern Territory After-Divorce Checklist covers the APP revocation alongside will updates (including the Section 15 automatic revocation and the partial intestacy trap), superannuation beneficiary nominations, and life insurance beneficiary changes — because each of these instruments operates independently, and missing any one of them leaves a gap your former spouse could fall through.

See more Northern Territory guides →