If you lose capacity rather than die

When you die in Thailand there is at least a process. When you lose capacity, there is a gap.

Does a power of attorney survive incapacity in Thailand?

No. Powers of attorney in Thailand fall under the agency provisions of the Civil and Commercial Code. They are built for specific transactions, and an agency ends on the death, incapacity or bankruptcy of either party. There is no durable or enduring power of attorney in Thai law.

The position on foreign lasting powers of attorney, and the question of the medical powers of attorney Thai firms sell, are set out on power of attorney in Thailand.

Who can act for you if you lose capacity?

Nobody, until a court appoints them. Thai law's answer is not something you sign in advance. It is an application someone makes after the fact.

A person of unsound mind may be adjudged incompetent by a court and placed under guardianship. A person with a physical or mental infirmity that leaves them unable to manage their affairs may be placed under curatorship instead.

It is two applications and two hearings. The first establishes that a guardian is needed. The second assesses and appoints one. Reported timelines start at three months.

Once appointed, a guardian handles medical decisions, property, bills, where the ward lives, and their finances. A guardian can also manage the ward's contact with other people, which matters for an unmarried couple where a relative abroad is appointed.

Who the court appoints is decided on a best-interests standard. The list of people who may apply is wider than the inheritance rules and appears to include a person caring for the individual. Whether a court would appoint a long-term partner over a blood relative living abroad is with a Thai lawyer and unanswered.

What happens to the bank account and the bills meanwhile?

Nobody can operate the bank account. Rent, utilities, insurance and care costs keep falling due. A lease, a vehicle, a phone contract, a business interest, all frozen the same way.

In practice the person providing care funds the patient's life from their own money while waiting for a court, and only then if the court appoints them.

What can you arrange in advance?

A living will. Section 12 of the National Health Act gives any person in Thailand, including foreigners, the right to refuse treatment that merely prolongs the terminal stage of life or causes unnecessary suffering. Health personnel who comply commit no offence and carry no liability.

It can be made by the patient alone, and a doctor does not have to ask the family's permission before implementing it. Where a patient is unconscious, the only duty owed to the family is to explain the illness and the process.

Put it in writing, dated and signed, with two adult witnesses. Notarisation is generally not required. Make it bilingual, so Thai hospital staff can read it.

Its limits: it refuses futile end-of-life treatment. It does not put anyone in charge of your property, and it says nothing about the ordinary decisions of the years before that point.

Marriage, again. It puts a spouse at the top of the list of people who may apply, and makes them next of kin for medical purposes.

Telling people in advance. A partner who knows to expect a three-month court process behaves very differently from one who finds out at a hospital desk.

What no document can do

Put your partner in charge of your property and your affairs. Only a court can do that, and only after the fact.