Power of Attorney
Power of Attorney (POA) Defined: to give authority or permission to another person to make legal and financial decisions on your behalf.
There are typically two (2) types of Power of attorney which are most often used:
(1) Healthcare / Medical POA: Medical Power of attorney is only necessary when a person CANNOT make medical decisions for themselves either due to a mental instability (Dementia / Alzheimer’s) or physical illness, injury, disability, or incapacity.
When a Healthcare / Medical POA is obtained from an experienced attorney, it will have the following provisions contained there in which will allow a person to provide answers to the most simple and the most difficult end-of-life questions; such as:
(a) Mental Healthcare: your body is fine, but your mind has “checked out,” can your agent speak with your doctor, consent to medications, or even have you confined to a 24-hour supervised facility (padded room)?
(b) HIPAA Release: is your agent authorized to access all of your medical records? Can they request your records from one treatment facility and take them to another?
(c) Living Will: if you are terminally ill, or in an irreversible come, or a persistent vegetative state, will your agent know what to do? Will you be kept alive by Machine or IV Food and Fluids? Will you pass away at home or at a hospital? Will the doctors pull the plug quickly or will they give you the benefit of the doubt? Will you be kept alive and preserved with your life prolonged to the greatest extent possible?
(d) Autopsy: do you want an autopsy, not want an autopsy, or will you let your agent decide?
(e) Organ Donation: are you an organ donor or would you like to be? If so is your donation only if it directly helps someone else’s quality of life (Transplant or Therapeutic ONLY) or is your donation for any legally authorized reason (up to and including research)?
(f) Burial or Cremation: will you be buried or cremated? Where will you be buried or what will happen to your cremains? (ashes)
Once answered, the POA agent (person you designate as your POA) will be prepared to answer any question or scenario which arises: presents itself
(2) Durable/Financial Power of Attorney: Durable means lasting until either revoked or death. Thus, a Durable POA allows an agent to make financial or property related decisions due to inability or incapacity.
A Durable POA should be prepared by an experienced attorney who understands the vast reasons for which the POA can be needed and exactly how to make it effective.
A properly draft Durable POA will address: activation, revocation, support of principle, medicare, medicaid, social security, charities, community property, retirement assets, insurances, bank accounts, credit cards, safe deposit boxes, support for others, recovery of funds, litigation, taxes, buying, selling, and conveying property, currency, investing, insurance, condemnation, agreements, debts, execution powers, trust creation, trust funding, debt collection, securities, property abandonment, power of appointment, guardian and conservatorship, agent benefits, waiver, severance, jurisdiction, amendment, and revocation.
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A Power of Attorney is a simple but powerful tool which should be utilized by everyone. However, the real key to creating a successful Power of Attorney is to visit with an experienced attorney ahead of time and get the Power of Attorney drafted and executed BEFORE it is needed.
This office ALWAYS does a FREE consultation regarding POWERS OF ATTORNEY and has very reasonable rates in order to make obtaining them as simple as possible.