Wills & estates · Sunshine Coast
Wills, enduring powers of attorney and advance health directives for Brighton QLD 4017, the bayside suburb that has Metro North Health's Brighton Health Campus on Hornibrook Highway inside it.
Brighton is one of the few suburbs on this coastline with a Queensland Health rehabilitation and aged care campus inside it: the Brighton Health Campus at 449 Hornibrook Highway, operated by Metro North Health, providing 24/7 subacute rehabilitation, residential care and complex care. We have no involvement with that campus and no arrangement of any kind with it — we mention it because it shapes who calls us from this postcode. At the 2021 Census Brighton's median age was 42, against 36 for the Brisbane local government area. At the same Census about 16.4% of Brighton residents were aged 65 or over, compared with roughly 13.5% across the Brisbane LGA. An older suburb with subacute and aged care on its own doorstep is why this page opens on enduring documents and timing rather than on what happens after a death. Catton Roderick Lawyers serves Brighton QLD 4017 — a Brisbane City Council suburb, which is what an executor will find on the rates notice and the land records — as part of its named service area, from the Redcliffe office and the Brisbane CBD office by appointment; there is no Brighton shopfront and we will not pretend otherwise.
Dr Darren Catton holds a Doctorate of Juridical Science (SJD) from QUT and is a STEP member, holding the TEP designation, an internationally recognised credential for trust and estate practitioners. The firm brings more than 30 years of experience in Queensland estate law, will drafting, estate claims and inheritance disputes, and Dr Catton sits on the Queensland Law Society Property Law Committee and presents seminars to fellow solicitors. That experience is directly relevant to Brighton, where the timing of capacity is the question that drives most first appointments. Catton Roderick Lawyers has no office in Brighton; clients are seen at the Redcliffe office or at the Brisbane CBD office by appointment, with after-hours appointments available.
Documents appointing who can act on your financial and personal matters if you lose capacity — the document a Brighton family most often needs first.
An enduring power of attorney can only be made while the principal still understands its nature and effect, which is why timing matters most in a suburb with an aged-care and rehabilitation campus inside it.
Book a consultationA document letting you give directions about future health care and appoint an attorney for health matters, prepared alongside your will and enduring power of attorney.
The Brighton Health Campus runs subacute rehabilitation, residential aged care and complex care in the suburb itself — settings where this document is often the one wanted first.
Book a consultationQueensland wills drafted alongside your enduring power of attorney and advance health directive, treated as one conversation rather than a document sold on its own.
Book a consultationMost estate planning pages start with what happens after a death. The harder problem in Brighton starts earlier, while everyone involved is still alive and the paperwork can still be signed.
Under the Powers of Attorney Act 1998 (Qld), a person can only make an enduring power of attorney if they understand what the document is and what it does — including that the authority continues even if they later lose capacity — and if they are making it freely and voluntarily. That is not a formality a solicitor can work around. Once that understanding is gone, the document can no longer be made, and a family that needs authority has to apply to the tribunal for guardianship or administration instead. The choice stops being the parent's and becomes a process.
Brighton's demographics make this a live local question rather than an abstract one. At the 2021 Census the suburb's median age was 42, six years above the Brisbane local government area median of 36, and around 16.4% of residents were aged 65 or over, compared with roughly 13.5% across the Brisbane LGA. Brighton also hosts the Brighton Health Campus at 449 Hornibrook Highway, operated by Metro North Health, which provides subacute rehabilitation, residential aged care and complex care, including a small geriatric evaluation and management unit for older patients with complex conditions. We have no involvement with that campus and no arrangement of any kind with it — we mention it because it explains the pattern. In this suburb, the event that sends a family looking for a solicitor is often an admission, and by then the timing question is already urgent.
So we work backwards from timing. In a first appointment we establish what documents exist, how the home is actually held — sole name, joint tenants or tenants in common changes whether it passes under the will at all — and whether an enduring power of attorney and an advance health directive are in place or still need to be made. Queensland law starts from the presumption that an adult has capacity to make their own decisions until the contrary is shown, and the witness to an enduring document has a duty to certify that the principal appeared to have the capacity to make it. Age by itself decides nothing. What we can tell you is that the documents are easier to make today than they will be at any later point, and that we will say plainly if we think a matter needs a medical opinion before signing.
There is a window in which a will and enduring documents can be signed, and it closes quietly. Queensland law only lets a person make an enduring power of attorney while they still understand its nature and effect, including that it keeps working after capacity is lost. Brighton sits in the Deagon Ward of Brisbane City Council, on the northern bayside, and at the 2021 Census its median age was 42 against 36 for the Brisbane local government area. Many of the people who call us are adult children, prompted by a parent's hospital or rehabilitation stay. We work through the will, the attorney appointment and the health directive together, and we tell you honestly where you stand.
It depends on whether she currently understands what the document is and what it does, including that it keeps working after capacity is lost — that is the test under the Powers of Attorney Act 1998 (Qld), not her age or the fact of being in care. Queensland law starts from the presumption that an adult has capacity until the contrary is shown, and a solicitor witnessing the document has a duty to certify that she appeared to have that capacity at the time. We take instructions quickly and tell you honestly whether it can properly be made now, or whether the position needs to be assessed first.
An enduring power of attorney appoints someone to act on your financial and personal matters — power for financial matters generally starts once the document is made unless a later start date is specified, while power for personal and health matters is only exercisable during a period of impaired capacity. An advance health directive is different again: it lets you give your own directions about future health care and appoint an attorney for health matters, and a direction you've given in it takes priority over a general health power given to an attorney. We prepare them together rather than treating either as optional.
Brighton's median age was 42 at the 2021 Census, six years above the Brisbane local government area median of 36, and about 16.4% of residents were aged 65 or over compared with roughly 13.5% across the Brisbane LGA. The suburb also has the Brighton Health Campus at 449 Hornibrook Highway inside it — a Metro North Health service providing 24/7 subacute rehabilitation, residential aged care and complex care. We have no involvement with the campus and no arrangement with it; it simply means an admission there is a common local trigger for families discovering there's no enduring power of attorney in place.
Do this while the choice is still your parent's to make, or still yours. Once capacity is lost an enduring power of attorney can no longer be made, and the family is left applying to the tribunal instead. Brighton clients are seen at the Redcliffe office or at the Brisbane CBD office by appointment, and after-hours appointments are available. Call 1300 673 792 or send an enquiry, tell us what has prompted the call, and we will tell you what can be done now.
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Sunshine Coast - By Appointment Only
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