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Being able to make your own decisions is one of the most basic and important parts of life. But when you lose that ability, it is extremely important to put someone you trust in charge of those decisions.
This is called comprehensive power of attorney, and it is one of the most important things to consider as you age or if you worry about becoming incapacitated for any reason.
By granting someone comprehensive power of attorney, you are giving them the ability to make all legal decisions on your behalf. This could mean anything from deciding the best course of action in a medical emergency to managing the life insurance for incarcerated persons.
#1 – The Power Is in Your Hands
The primary advantage of delegating power of attorney is you get to make this decision before you are unable to make any decisions.
If the worst occurs and you become unable to communicate your intentions, the person you choose to be your power of attorney will be able to make the decisions you would (hopefully) have them make on your behalf.
This is why it’s crucial to ensure the person you choose would act objectively and with your best interest at heart.
Some experts recommend against choosing one’s own children as their power of attorney specifically because it’s difficult for them to remain objective if they are forced into the role.
#2 – No Reason to Doubt Intentions
It is common for a court to grant someone power of attorney if the decision wasn’t made before the primary person becomes incapacitated.
One frustrating consequence of the decision being made by the third party is each decision the agent makes will be watched closely and criticized by friends, family members, or even attorneys.
When you select your own power of attorney, others can take comfort in the fact that you chose your agent. This means no matter what they should choose to do, any blame is on you for selecting them.
Again, this is why making an educated election is so important, but the peace of mind you’ll provide others by making this proactive decision is well worth it.
#3 – Discuss Decisions in Advance
When you decide to list someone as your power of attorney, it’s a great opportunity to sit down with the person and talk about your feelings and what choices you would make in crisis scenarios.
By having this conversion, you can feel confident they will make the decisions you will have made, and they will be able to make those decisions quickly (having already discussed them).
Some of the most common topics to discuss are:
- Business management, such as electing who takes over your operation while you’re incapacitated.
- Financial management and obligations, like paying your bills, transferring funds or selling investments and assets (stocks, cars, houses, etc.).
- Health care decisions, including electing operations, treatments, or even termination plans.
- Long-term care planning and elder guardianship.
Taking the time to bring these topics up will lead to greater preparation and planning for the future.
#4 – Prevent Delays in Asset Planning and Gifting
An elected agent wielding your power of attorney can spring into action as soon as the moment calls. This isn’t true if you haven’t explicitly given that power to someone.
It is very likely that as soon as you were to become incapacitated, your partner or children would need immediate access to monetary support. Bills, taxes, and mortgage payments wait for no one.
Avoid any late payments by making early decisions and granting access to accounts to your power of attorney. This can also prevent problems such as personal loans being passed to your family after you die.
#5 – Peace of Mind
Besides the obvious gift of having everything taken care of should worse come to worst, the peace of mind you’ll receive having this all planned out will be certainly worth the effort.
We should expect to be incapacitated at some point in our lives, so each person should prepare for that moment and for the end of life in general as soon as possible so we can hopefully put it out of our minds.
As the famous author, Stephen King, once wrote, “There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.”
Power of Attorney vs. the Prison System
Earlier, we mentioned power of attorney could be used to represent an inmate as well. This is because any competent adult can elect a power of attorney on their behalf.
This legal document would give someone representing the inmate access to their money, and parental power of attorney can be used to handle decisions about children on the inmate’s behalf as well.
One caveat is most states require any power of attorney declaration to be signed by the principal (the person who creates the power of attorney) and witnesses or a notary. Any inmate must also follow these formalities.
For this reason, experts recommend having someone outside of the prison or jail, like an attorney, prepare the power of attorney document on your behalf then consult officials on how they recommend proceeding with the signing process.
Disadvantages of Power of Attorney
The only disadvantage that comes from electing power of attorney is they will be your voice while you are incapacitated.
This means if you choose poorly or don’t properly discuss expectations with this individual, you and others will be subject to any decisions they make on your behalf.
Unlike when the legal system determines the power of attorney recipient, when you elect someone yourself, there will be no direct oversight into their decisions from any legal party. This could lead to legal issues like elder financial abuse or fraud. In this case, it would need to be reported to authorities and investigated in order to have the power of attorney overturned.
Willing Principal
One quirk about establishing a power of attorney is that a majority of the time you will not need the recipient’s permission to list them as your power of attorney.
Obviously, this isn’t advised because it could lead to some major backlash in a crisis scenario, and they would be unprepared to handle the situation.
The other side to this issue is that you can’t force anyone to execute your power of attorney. They have to make the decision on their own and the power of attorney only becomes active if they choose to act on it.
This means they are under no obligation to execute anything you wish. This is a great reason why, and we’ll reiterate it one last time, you should grant someone your power of attorney only if you trust them completely.
You must have total faith in their ability to make decisions on your behalf, and you must educate them on exactly what some of those decisions might be.
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Luke Williams writes and researches for the insurance comparison site, ExpertInsuranceReviews.com. His passions include best practices for insurance and navigating today’s legal system.
