Do You Need to Sign A Power of Attorney?
Â
Without an existing Power of Attorney have you stopped to think what would happen if you were incapacitated? Without a Power of Attorney who would be able to access your finances, perhaps take care of pending real estate deals? Who would be able to make important legal decisions on your behalf if you couldn't? Having a Power of Attorney ready to come into effect should you ever need one is an important part of your future planning.
Â
What Is Power of Attorney
Â
A Power of Attorney can be a very powerful document, so you need to be very careful with whom you trust this power to. The Power of Attorney document allows the person who is named by the document as your agent to legally act for you. This document gives the agent named in the Power of Attorney the power to make decisions and sign legal documents as if they were you. You can limit the Power of Attorney to very specific powers, or you can give the Power of Attorney a very broad general power. You can also have different Powers of Attorney for different areas. For example, you can have one Power of Attorney limited to making health care decisions on your behalf and a different Power of Attorney to take care of your financial affairs.
Â
Types of Power of Attorney
Â
You can create two different types of Power of Attorney: non-durable power and durable power. If the Power of Attorney is non-durable, it is only effective while you are alive and mentally competent. The law automatically revokes the non-durable Power of Attorney if you die or lose your mental capacity. In this way, the Power of Attorney is not irrevocable. In other words, because you are mentally incapacitated, you are no longer able to change your mind and revoke your Power of Attorney, so the law revokes it for you. However, it is often when you are incapacitated that you most need someone you trust to have Power of Attorney on your behalf.
Â
A durable Power of Attorney persists in spite of your incapacitation or mental incompetence. The durable Power of Attorney is more reliable because you can be assured that your agent has lasting power to act on your behalf even in the case of injury, illness or any other cause that incapacitated you so that you cannot handle our own affairs You can also design the durable Power of Attorney for short-term needs: for such times whenever the principal person (you) might become temporarily incapacitated for some reason, or unavailable. In these cases, when the particular instance is finished, the power returns back to the principle. The durable Power of Attorney is revoked upon your death. You can also revoke the durable Power of Attorney at any time.
Â
Power of Attorney and Health Care Decisions
Â
The durable Power of Attorney is very useful if you become ill or mentally incapacitated. Your agent could have the power to take care of any health care directive you have. Would you wish to stay on life support, or would you wish a Do Not Resuscitate order? Without a Power of Attorney in effect, the hospital may be obligated to put you on life support. Your Power of Attorney has the power to ensure that your actual care decisions are followed.
Author Resource:
A Power of Attorney can be a very powerful document, so you need to be very careful with whom you trust this power to. The Power of Attorney document allows the person.... Learn more at lasting and person
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")