Elder Law Report
Elder Law Report
Does Everyone Need a Power of Attorney?
Are you prepared for life's curveballs? That's exactly what we, attorneys Samantha Gordon and Jordan Bentley from McIntyre Elder Law, explore in an episode that promises to arm you with the knowledge to safeguard your decision-making powers during unforeseen circumstances. We delve into the importance of having powers of attorney in place as you or your loved ones approach significant life transitions, such as leaving for college or tying the knot. With our legal expertise, you'll learn how to preemptively secure your interests and ensure your voice is heard, even if you can't speak for yourself.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the often-misunderstood realm of legal rights within familial and marital relationships. Whether it's a parent’s role in the life of their newly-minted adult child or the assumption that spouses automatically have decision-making power over each other’s affairs, we debunk common myths and provide actionable insights. By tuning in, you'll find out how to smoothly navigate the legal landscape of powers of attorney, so your assets and well-being remain in trusted hands, no matter the distance or circumstance. Join us on the Elder Law Report for a discussion that could be a game-changer for you and your family.
Hi, I'm attorney Samantha Gordon with McIntyre Elder Law. Welcome to the Elder Law Report.
Speaker 2:And I'm attorney Jordan Bentley, also with McIntyre Elder.
Speaker 1:Law.
Speaker 2:Yes, and happy to be here Sam.
Speaker 1:Me too. So what we're going to do is we're going to talk about powers of attorney. Today it is wedding season. We have individuals that are graduating from high school and from college, and why would a power of attorney be important for them specifically?
Speaker 2:Well, before we get to that, a lot of people think that you know a power of attorney. You want to have those in place right when you're getting a little bit older. You're worried about maybe your health declining or not being able to make decisions for yourself, and it's certainly an important time to have an agent in place and have someone to act on your behalf, but it's not the only time.
Speaker 1:It's not the only time. So, specifically for an individual that may be graduating high school, you have your 18-year-old that is going to college. Maybe they're going to a different state for college and up until now, as a parent, you may have been helping them with medical appointments, medical decisions, maybe helping them open up a bank account, their financial decisions, their first job, things like that. Now that they're going to another location where maybe you are not able to do that physically, there's a document, a financial power of attorney, also a healthcare power of attorney, so two documents that you can make sure that your child signs and says, hey, I want this person. If, in the event, I'm in college, something happens. Maybe they have a new job and they open up a bank account or heaven forbid, something were to happen where you know they had to go to the hospital or something like that Now they have this power of attorney where you can come in and you can make decisions for them. Hopefully you know that would not happen, but it does happen sometimes, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Right and, as Sam said, right, you think you're their parent, it's your child. Why wouldn't you just be able to do that anyway? Well, it's not automatic. Once they're an adult, once they're at age 18, you really do need that legal document in place to be able to make decisions for them, and the same thing applies to your spouses. So I know I've been invited to a few weddings in the spring. I think Sam has a couple coming up. A lot of people think that you know, just because we're married, this is my spouse now I can make decisions for them, right? That's absolutely not the case. So if you're, you know, marrying someone, you have assets with them, maybe you own a home together. You want to help each other manage your affairs. It's really important that you're their power of attorney as well and that they're yours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. A lot of the times, maybe one spouse will go on the mortgage, or there's an individual bank account or there's individual retirement accounts. Now that you're becoming a union and you're joining and all of your individual accounts are becoming one and maybe not automatically going to become joint or you've decided to keep them separate, you want to make sure that on all those separate accounts, each other has the authority, the legal authority, to manage those accounts for the other if something were to happen. You definitely want to make sure that that also is in place. So who else would need a power of attorney?
Speaker 2:Well, we spoke about newlyweds, we talked about parents with children. For all the single people out there, maybe you're traveling, maybe you're taking a trip, you're going somewhere out of the country and you're leaving stuff here assets in the United States right, it'd be a good idea to have a power of attorney in place then, someone you trust, maybe a parent, maybe a sibling, someone who'd be able to help you and manage anything for you while you're gone. You certainly can't go to the bank or the DMV if you're out of the country.
Speaker 1:Correct, exactly so. If anything were to happen where you're not here and something needs to be signed, your power of attorney can act for you. Even if you have animals, you know having a power of attorney so that you can access the bank account if something were to happen to one of those animals while you were not here and you know a vet bill needs to be paid, or something like that. You just want to make sure that things aren't frozen, things aren't stalled and that whoever needs to act for you has the right to do that.
Speaker 2:That's super important as well. And even if you're young, you're not getting married, you don't have kids, you're not traveling. You never know when something might happen. You can't plan for the future. We don't have a crystal ball. There's always a chance that you might end up in a situation where you're unable to make a decision or do something for yourself, and that's why we like to say that the healthcare power of attorney and the general durable power of attorney are probably the two most important documents that we draft for people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would also say doing it early it's really a great way to set up your estate plan where you're building this foundation early on and you can just keep building that house as you get older.
Speaker 1:We have, unfortunately, a lot of individuals that come to our office where they are older, maybe, say in their fifties or their sixties, and they don't have any documents in place and they didn't think about this, you know, in their 20s, 30s, 40s and they're coming to us and unfortunately sometimes there are incapabilities that come up or you know, someone isn't at a point where now they can sign a legal document because they don't understand that legal document where, if you would have done it, you know, earlier, you would have at least had something in place that could have helped the family when it comes to that type of situation. So estate planning is not just for when you're older, it is also for the now we're in our 30s. We want to make sure that we have something that's in place to make sure that if something were to happen, someone can have legal authority to manage our affairs.
Speaker 2:Super important. The earlier you start planning and start preparing for these things, you know, the easier and the more stress free the process can be. Definitely, I would rather help you plan for something than solve a crisis, and I think Sam feels the same way.
Speaker 1:Definitely.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately also, we have a lot of people that come in here and we do a lot of crisis planning for individuals where, you know, have that pre-planning set up and now their family is trying to navigate through a crisis when they really want to just be able to focus on the individual but now it kind of becomes a transactional matter where they have to focus on all this transactional stuff and what they need to get in place rather than just being able to kind of help that person and they're coming to us at a very difficult time, which just adds to the stress and just the stress of the situation, the stress on the individuals, the whole family.
Speaker 1:So by pre-planning, it's super important. So a financial power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney, a financial power of attorney. You appoint an agent. You can also have a backup. So you usually can have a succession line where you have your agent, the first person that you've chosen, to make sure your affairs are being handled, your financial affairs, as well as a backup. You can even have a backup to the backup and all financial affairs your mortgage, your bank account, retirement accounts, all of that you can come in and talk to estate planning.
Speaker 1:Exactly and hire someone on your behalf, hire a lawyer on your behalf and then a healthcare private attorney really encompasses. If you become incompetent, cannot make your own healthcare decisions, you want to have that person be able to hire and fire doctors. Get a second opinion if they don't like what the first doctor said. Access your medical records. Access medical records. Make sure if you want an autopsy done, that's going to be declared. If you want to be buried, if you want to be cremated, do you want mental treatment? Specifically those type of treatments.
Speaker 2:And those agents under those two different powers of attorney might not always be the same person, but what is important is that it's two people, or one person that you trust.
Speaker 1:Correct. Yes, you want to make sure that you trust those individuals. I mean, someone might be really good with finances but not really good with emotional decisions, doesn't really have emotional capacity, so probably not a good person for your healthcare power of attorney, so you can have definitely different individuals. Super, super important documents. We would love to offer everyone that's listening, viewing us today, a free consultation. You can give us a call at 888-999-6600 or you can visit our website at mcelderlawcom scheduling. Thanks so much, jordan. Thank you, sam, have a great day.