Your Estate Planning Toolbox: Powers of Attorney

This final piece of
Wynn at Law, LLC’s short Estate Planning series looks at how you can
express your wishes when you’re still alive but might not be able to
communicate. Injuries and illnesses are facts of aging. Our first
article in the series mentioned that fewer than one in three
Americans have a Living Will. Even fewer have a Power of Attorney.

First, a bit about the
difference between the two tools before we get into the types of
Powers of Attorney – or POAs. Both come into play when you are not
able to express your wishes. A Living Will identifies your wishes in
the event of very specific health care situations. While a Health
Care Power of Attorney allows someone else to make your wishes known
on their behalf and make decisions in your best interests. Generally,
a Health Care Power of Attorney grants broad authority to your agent
to act on your behalf, whereas a Living Will gives specific direction
in the event of a defined health situation. Does it hurt to have
both a Living Will and a POA? That is a great question for your
Estate Planning Lawyer (a case-by-case answer you cannot get online),
but in general, no.

Two Powers of
Attorney

The ability to have
someone act on your behalf via a POA can be limited, rather than just
giving your designee – or agent – act unilaterally for you. The
POA is usually viewed as either a Health Care POA or Financial POA.

Health Care POA:
This document gives an individual the power to make medical decisions
for you if you become incapacitated. These decisions can include
institutional admission, life support, or surgery.

Financial POA: This
document designates an agent to manage your finances if you become
incapacitated or are unable to make informed decisions for yourself.
This is also important if a person can still make decisions, but
cannot speak or physically sign his or her name. Rather than adding
an agent as a co-owner of an account, exposing that account to the
agent’s debts, a POA allows them to sign checks you direct them to
sign.

The stats favor
using a POA

Not many Wynn at Law,
LLC clients will legitimately say they enjoy the reality of Estate
Planning. You are, after all, planning for the end of life. Your
life. It’s potentially a warm, caring topic that gets overshadowed by
morbid stigma about death and dying. The disability part of the
conversation is even more difficult because, by nature, we don’t want
to think about being alive but incapable of acting for ourselves.

The statistics say we
need to pay more attention to POAs. The Administration on Aging’s
2018 Profile of Older Americans concluded that 62 percent of
adults over 65 had two or more chronic conditions. And it isn’t just
a concern to wise up to once you retire. More than one in four of
today’s 20-year-olds can expect to be disabled before they reach
retirement according to the Social Security Administration. An
expertly drafted POA can help prevent incapacitation from turning
into an emotional and financial family tragedy.
The post Your Estate Planning Toolbox: Powers of Attorney appeared first on Wynn at Law, LLC.