There are various options:
Solely – This is where you only chose to appoint one individual. They have sole responsibility for making decisions on your behalf and are accountable to no other attorney. This may be problematic if your attorney dies or becomes incapacitated as you have only chosen to appoint one. However, this can be remedied by appointing a replacement attorney(s).
Jointly – in this case you appoint two or more attorneys jointly. This means that they must make all decisions jointly and sign all cheques and other documentation. This is good for accountability as no one attorney can act without the knowledge of the others. However, it can be impractical if an attorney is out of the country on holiday for example as nothing can be done in their absence. Further, in the event of one of the attorneys dying or becoming incapacitated, the entire document fails and you must either make another document or you must rely on the appointment of your replacement attorney(s).
Jointly and independently – you can appoint two or more attorneys jointly or independently. This means that they can either act all together as outlined above or they can act independently of each other. This means that if one is on holiday, the remaining attorney(s) may still take decisions. This is less accountable than a joint appointment but more pragmatic. If one attorney dies or becomes incapacitated, the remaining attorney(s) can continue to act without recourse to the appointment of any replacement attorneys.
Mixture of Jointly and Jointly and Independently – this means that you can choose to have some decisions made jointly and some other perhaps less important ones on a joint and independent basis. For example; you may decide that selling a property is a joint decision but paying the nursing home fees is a joint and independent decision. If you opt for this, you must set out very clearly what decisions are joint and what are joint and independent. In the event of ambiguity, the Court will have to resolve.