
Power of Attorney
A Power of Attorney for Management
of Finances is a document which authorizes another person or
company of your choice to act on your behalf in the
management of your finances. You can limit it to taking care
of one or more parts of your financial business, or you can
extend it to all of your affairs. If you have a Living
Trust, it will cover management of just those assets that
have not been transferred into the Trust.
The Power of Attorney for Management
of Finances can last for a limited period of time or can be
open-ended, so that it will continue during your lifetime -
unless you decide to give notice for it to stop. It can be
in effect immediately or only if you become incapacitated.
This is a valuable tool if you are
ill or if you are out of town, when you need another person
to handle matters for you. If you do not have such an
arrangement in place, there may need to be court
intervention when you become incapacitated. In such a case,
the court would make decisions on your behalf that might not
be what you want. They will name someone to manage your
finances, which is less preferable than you being able to
name that person. Therefore, we suggest each person
seriously consider having a Power of Attorney for Management
of Finances. |