Private guardians and attorneys now have better access to e-services

Private guardians and attorneys can now manage the financial matters of their clients and granters in the e-services of the Finnish Tax Administration, Traficom and other authorities without separate authorisation. The reforms concerns about 20,000 attorneys and 15,000 private guardians.

“This reform has been long awaited by guardians. Even though a private guardian had been tasked with managing their client’s tax matters, the decision to appoint a guardian has not, until now, automatically allowed the use of e-services,” explains Jani Saarela, Senior Adviser in the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Guardians can now use all e-services that check the right to act on behalf of another party from Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. This means that a separate authorisation is no longer required.

The reform was prompted by the new Register of Guardianship Affairs from which Suomi.fi e-Authorizations check the right to act on behalf of another party in real time and in a reliable manner. The register, which is maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, contains the personal details of attorneys and private guardians and the details of their powers.

• How does a guardian act on behalf of a person under guardianship?
• Acting on behalf of a granter of a continuing power of attorney

Additional rights to act on behalf of other parties can be obtained with Suomi.fi e-Authorizations – no digital skills are required to submit the application

A private guardian or an attorney is still not allowed to use e-services to act on behalf of another person in matters concerning this person’s health and other personal matters.

A guardian, an attorney or any other trusted person can act on behalf of another person in MyKanta or pharmacies after they have received Suomi.fi e-Authorization for the purpose. The assignor/granter does not need digital skills or a digital ID.

• Granting mandates if you are unable to use electronic services

Separate powers of attorney are still required for many services

Private guardians or attorneys cannot access e-services in a similar manner if the e-service in question does not yet use Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. For example, banks and insurance companies have their own practices for acting on behalf of another party.

See each service’s instructions to check how to act on behalf of another person in the service.

Acting on behalf of another party is easier with Suomi.fi e-Authorizations

Suomi.fi e-Authorizations provide a secure and reliable national solution for using e-services on behalf of private persons and companies.

A company or a private person can authorise another party to act on their behalf. From a citizen’s perspective, most of these service activities are carried out on an automated basis when the right to act on behalf of another party can be checked quickly and reliably from register data. For this reason, such parties as guardians or companies’ and associations’ signatories do not need separate mandates as their right to act on behalf of another party is checked from up-to-date registers.

“In the optimum situation, Suomi.fi e-Authorizations are an invisible player that make the use of services easier and that automatically check the right to act on behalf of another party from such registers as the Population Information System, BIS, Register of Associations and now also from the new Register of Guardianship Affairs,” explains Tuuli Krekelä, Senior Adviser in the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.