Power of Attorney Services

A Power of Attorney is a written document that allows you (the “principal”) to give someone else (your “agent”) legal authority to act on your behalf in certain matters. You must choose who will act as your agent and specify what powers you are giving to your agent (what your agent is allowed to do for you). You may select any competent adult to act as your agent. The authority that a Power of Attorney gives to your agent can be as limited as selling your car for you or as broad as making financial and health care decisions on your behalf.

You should be very careful about who you choose to be your agent. Your agent will be able to make decisions that are legally binding on you, so it is very important that you choose a person who you can trust and who knows you well.

You may select more than one person to act as your agent and you may name a successor agent if your original agent is unable or unwilling to continue to act as your agent.

You must be mentally competent at the time that the Power of Attorney is created for it to be valid. If you execute a valid Power of Attorney and then later become mentally unable to make your own decisions, your Power of Attorney will continue to remain in effect unless it specifically says otherwise. By naming an agent ahead of time, you can make sure that someone you trust will look after your affairs when you are unable to do so yourself.

You can designate a time that your Power of Attorney will become effective. You can do this by specifying a future date, or an event that must take place. For example, your Power of Attorney can be written so that it starts only when you cannot make decisions for yourself.

If you do not specify a time for your Power of Attorney to become effective, it will become effective as soon as it is executed.

If you decide that you no longer want or need a Power of Attorney, or if you change your mind about who your agent is, you can terminate a Power of Attorney by giving written notice to your agent. You should also give notice to your bank, your doctor, or anyone else who got a copy of your Power of Attorney. You can revoke a Power of Attorney at any time.

In some cases, the Power of Attorney will terminate automatically. When you create the Power of Attorney, you can arrange for it to end at a certain time by including an expiration date into the document. In most cases, a Power of Attorney will also end automatically if your spouse is your agent and a divorce is filed. Finally, a Power of Attorney will end automatically when you die and your agent learns of your death.

Your agent must act in accordance with your wishes as long as you have the mental capacity to make your own decisions.

If you lose that capacity, your agent should attempt to do what you would have wished if you still had the capacity to act.

For example, if your agent knows that when you were fully competent you were always opposed to investment in a certain company, then the agent should not invest in that company on your behalf.

An agent who cannot determine what you would have wanted is required do what he or she believes to be in your best interests.

Yes. Giving someone a Power of Attorney does not prevent you from making decisions or conducting business for yourself. If you and the agent disagree, your decision governs. (This assumes the decisions are announced at the same time. If an agent has decided to sell an item of property and has sold it, your later announcement that you do not want to sell it doesn’t undo the sale.) If the agent does not respect your wishes, you should revoke the Power of Attorney.

A problem may arise if an agent with a Durable Power of Attorney believes you now lack the mental capacity to act independently or to cancel the Power of Attorney, but you disagree. In such a case, the agent may file a guardianship proceeding and ask a court to determine whether you are mentally incapacitated.