How Do I Give Someone a Power of Attorney?
To give a power of attorney, you
must be over 18 years old and competent to enter into a contract. You are competent to enter into a contract
unless you are of unsound mind or have been deprived of your civil rights.
Your power of attorney must be in
writing. It must identify your
agent(s). It must either be signed by
you or by another person who signs your name at your direction, in your presence,
when you are conscious. It is advisable,
but not required, that your signature be notarized.
You can give more than one power
of attorney. Giving more than one power
of attorney does not automatically terminate a prior power of attorney. However, powers of attorney often contain a
clause saying that you are revoking or terminating all other powers of
attorney. If you want to have more than
one power of attorney in effect at the same time, you need to make sure that
none of them have that clause.
Your powers of attorney may be
for different subjects. You may want to
give one agent a power of attorney for health care decisions and another agent
a power of attorney for financial matters.
You can also give more than one
power of attorney to different agents for the same subject; or give one power
of attorney that names more than one agent.
These are called co-agents. A
co-agent is different than a successor agent (discussed in a later post). Co-agents are authorized to act for you
during the same time period. A successor
agent is authorized to act for you only if your former agent can no longer act
for you.
Unless your power of attorney
specifies otherwise, the agent named in each power of attorney, or co-agents
named in the same power of attorney, can act independently for you without the
knowledge or consent of the other agent(s) or co-agents.
If your agents or co-agents have
overlapping authority, you should consider the consequences if they agents
disagree and provide a clear method in the power of attorney for how such
disagreements will be resolved. For
example, if you give each of your children a power of attorney, or name more
than one child as co-agents, to make home care decisions for you, you should
provide for how that decision will be made if the children disagree. Otherwise, the disagreement may generate a
family feud and law suits for resolving disagreements between co-agents.
If you need a power of attorney
or want your power of attorney updated, contact Thomas T. Tornow, P.C. at http://www.tornowlaw.com.
By: Thomas T. Tornow
Thomas T. Tornow, P.C.
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