Legal Tips

Here is part three of my four-part series of articles dedicated to providing the you, the community, with information regarding basic estate planning documents, forms, and what to do with the information. In this article, I talk about Powers of Attorney.

POWERS OF ATTORNEY

A Power of Attorney form is a written authorization for a person to handle property or financial matters for another individual. The person signing the Power of Attorney form and giving someone power over his or her assets is called the "principal." The person named to handle the principal's assets is called the "attorney-in-fact."

You can name one or more persons to act as your attorney-in-fact. You can require the attorneys-in-fact to act jointly, meaning that they must agree on all decisions and both sign all documents related to your financial affairs. In the alternative, you can allow either attorney-in-fact to act at any time. In addition, you can name a successor attorney-in-fact to take over, should the attorney-in-fact you name, die, become incapacitated, resign, or otherwise be unwilling or unable to serve as your attorney-in-fact.

If there is no expiration date stated on the Power of Attorney form, it will continue to be in effect until your death, or until you revoke the form. The form can be revoked at any time, while you are competent, by a written revocation form. A copy of this written revocation form should then be given to your attorney-in-fact, and to any third party who might be relying on the form.

The Power of Attorney form indicates a series of powers you can give to the attorney-in-fact, including power over real estate, personal property items, stocks, bonds, bank accounts, business transactions, and any insurance matters. You can choose to give the attorney-in-fact power over all of these matters, or just restrict the power to certain matters.

You can establish a form that takes effect the date you sign it, or a form which only takes effect when your doctor indicates that you are unable to handle your financial affairs with adequate competence. To provide safeguards on the form, you can indicate that your attorney-in-fact is required to give periodic accountings to you or to other interested parties.

You should be sure the person or persons you choose to be your attorney(s)-in-fact are trustworthy and willing and able to handle the responsibility of managing your financial affairs, should you become incapacitated.

Please contact me if you would like to learn more about Power of Attorney forms, or if you would like me to prepare a form for you.

Jennifer A. Williams, is the owner of The Law Office of Jennifer A. Williams, PLLC. Be sure to check out Jennifer’s website at http://www.jawlawoffice.com for more information about her and the services she provides. She can be reached at (406) 775-6655 or [email protected] should you have any questions regarding this article.

* DISCLAIMER: This article is for general informational purposes only. In no way shall this article constitute legal advice or substitution for legal counsel – and should not be relied upon as such. The information contained in this article is not promised to reflect the most current legal developments; accordingly, information found here is not promised or guaranteed to be correct or complete. As legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case, nothing provided in this article should be used as a substitute for advice of competent counsel.