Separate an NSW guardian or financial manager from an NDIS plan nominee
MaintainedLast reviewed
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the nominee instrument, any guardianship order and any financial management order, list who each document names and which decisions it covers. Do not decide who may make the NDIS decision.
- What the lawyer must review
- Decide whether a plan nominee, a guardian or a financial manager has authority for this decision.
- A New South Wales order is not an appointment of a plan nominee.
- Check any notice that requires the participant to act personally.
- Keep medical details in the firm's system. Apply ASCR rule 9, APP 11, and the Privacy Act notifiable-breach test.
- Written for / version
- New South Wales versionNSWVIC
Rules that apply
The document starts from the task name. Change it if this piece of work is different.
The work product
Forum. NDIS Act section 78 and the Guardianship Act 1987 (NSW)
Produce. A document map of who is named and which decisions each document covers. No decision on who should sign.
Have ready. Nominee instrument, if any; Guardianship order, if any; Financial management order, if any; The NDIS decision the lawyer identifies.
Example of the limit. Illustrative example: A financial management order names the NSW Trustee. There is no plan-nominee instrument. The tool lists the order against section 25E and leaves the NDIS decision unsigned. It does not treat the Trustee as a plan nominee.
Stop and hand it back when
- The instrument of appointment is missing and the tool is asked to treat a guardian as the plan nominee.
- A notice requires the participant to act personally and someone else is shown as signing.
Sources for this task were checked on 2026-10-23.
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | From the nominee instrument, any guardianship order and any financial management order, list who each document names and which decisions it covers. Do not decide who may make the NDIS decision. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Section 78 lets a plan nominee do participant acts about the plan, the management of plan funding, and withdrawing under section 29A, except as the instrument of appointment limits.
- Section 78(4) does not extend to an act that a notice requires the participant to do personally. Section 78(5) limits a nominee appointed on the CEO's initiative to acts the nominee considers the participant is not capable of doing, or of being supported to do.
- Under section 14, the Tribunal may make a guardianship order if, after a hearing, it is satisfied the person is a person in need of a guardian. Section 14(2) sets out the matters it must consider.
- Under section 25E, the Tribunal may order that the estate be subject to management under the NSW Trustee and Guardian Act 2009, and may exclude a specified part of the estate. That order is not the instrument in section 78.
Sources
- National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth) section 78 · 2026-10-23
- Guardianship Act 1987 (NSW) section 14 · 2026-10-23
- Guardianship Act 1987 (NSW) section 25E · 2026-10-23
Appointment of a plan nominee is in section 86, which was not opened. The Tribunal is the Tribunal under the Guardianship Act 1987. No section of the NSW Trustee and Guardian Act 2009 was opened beyond the reference in section 25E.