In this Elder Law Minute, Kaye Dent explains why having Powers of Attorney documents set to be effective immediately is the best approach to have in case of urgent situations.
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"Your Trusted Advisor on the Elder Care Journey"
Dent Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer's Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older.
At Dent Coulson Elder Law, our clients' well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (618) 632-7000, (217) 330-5500, or (314) 567-9292.
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Video Transcript:
Hi, I'm Kaye DeSelms Dent with Dent Coulson Elder Law here with an Elder Law Minute for you. These videos are intended to educate you about the elder care journey, which begins earlier in life than you might think. We hope that you find them useful and if you have further questions, please call us at Dent Coulson Elder Law.
In many cases, people feel the need to have their powers of attorney documents drafted so that they do not become effective unless and until the person is somehow declared to be disabled or incapacitated. But there's an issue with that, because how does one become disabled or incapacitated? How is that declared? The entire point of having powers of attorney in the first place, is to have, first of all, documents that are appropriately and comprehensively drafted so that your agent can do whatever needs to be done at any given time without having to go to court. Court is expensive, much more expensive than having a power of attorney drafted and executed in the first place. And it's time consuming.
If you have powers of attorney documents that require a finding of disability or incapacity prior to your agent being able to act, however, your agent may be stuck with delays waiting on a physician to make some declaration, whether in writing or otherwise, that you no longer have capacity to make your own decisions. And I personally had a case in which the physician didn't get around to this for four months, and we were waiting and waiting and waiting with the clock ticking and an elderly client who could pass away at any moment needing to have some things done. So having a power of attorney document that says it's effective immediately is very key and it's the way that I insist on drafting the documents for my client. It means that your agent can act the minute that you need it. They can hit the ground running and not have expensive or fatal delays.
The most frequent objection I get to having the powers of attorney effective immediately is that people don't want their agents just going off and doing things when they're perfectly okay. Well, pick the right agents. That's the key to it. If you pick people that you really trust who know what the parameters are, who know that their job isn't to just start making your decisions when you're fine, it will work fine. And it's actually better to have the powers of attorney be effective the minute they're needed, without people having to jump through additional hoops.
Thank you for tuning in to our Elder Law Minute. And if you need assistance with powers of attorney or any other estate planning needs please call Dent Coulson Elder Law.
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