Wilma has dementia and was just admitted to a nursing home. Her daughter, Pebbles, is in our conference room in a weary and teary state. Pebbles has just learned that due to having an inadequate power of attorney in place essentially all of Wilma’s assets will have to be used to fund her long term care needs. Wilma and her late husband, Fred, thought that the standard power of attorney they got from their family lawyer planned for such a disability. It didn’t.
Their outcome could have been different.
While the names have been changed to protect the innocent, this story is real, and it plays out over and over again in each of our offices because people don’t even know what they don’t know about Elderlaw, Estate Planning, and Asset Protection. It doesn’t have to be this way.
A properly drawn power of attorney is one that is tailored to give another person (your agent) the legal authority, along with proper instructions to your agent so they know exactly what you want them to do to protect and provide for you and your loved ones in the event of a long term care institutionalization, while limiting their ability to abuse that authority or act against your instructions. Without a properly tailored power of attorney you’re exponentially increasing the odds of very avoidable fights between your agent and your loved ones that often lead to deep and unhealable chasms in family relationships.
In short, the right power of attorney is the most important asset protection tool you can put in place. With the right power of attorney you can protect and provide for your family, come what may. Without a power of attorney, or with the wrong one, you could lose everything.
Contact us to learn how to fully protect and provide for your family by learning what you don’t even know you don’t know about Elderlaw, Estate Planning, and Asset Protection.
Image: “[Document, signed, giving power of attorney to John Knight, Jr., [London]” byBeinecke Flickr Laboratory is licensed under CC BY 2.0
You are now leaving Jeffrey P. Reisner, Esq. and will be redirected to the Upstate Financial Network.
