The Two Types Of Power Of Attorney You Need In Your Estate Planning
Estate planning is the process of planning for your future and for the end of your life, and there are a lot of key components and elements of this process. One important component of estate planning is determining and choosing your power of attorney, and there are actually two important types of these that you may want to create as part of your estate plan.
Financial power of attorney
The first type of power of attorney you may want to have is a financial power of attorney. This type is designed to offer a way for you to transfer the rights and responsibilities of making your financial decisions to someone else. When you sign this over to the person you named as your power of attorney, that person gains complete control of your finances. This means that the person can write checks from your account, take money out of your accounts, close your accounts, and transfer money. The person will be able to do anything with your money and financial accounts that he or she chooses.
As you can see, choosing a person you trust to be your financial power of attorney is absolutely vital. You may want to choose one of your children if you have kids, or you could choose your spouse or a different close relative. In any case, make sure you carefully think about this decision before making it.
Healthcare power of attorney
The second type is called a healthcare power of attorney, and this is a person who gains control of making healthcare decisions for you if you are unable to make these decisions yourself. If you become incapacitated, for example, and cannot make decisions about what type of medical care to get, this person would get to choose for you. Any type of medical decision that needs to be made would be left to this person if you reach a point where you can no longer make decisions on your own. Again, choosing a person that you completely trust is very important in this decision, as these decisions could affect your life. You can choose the same person to serve as both roles, or you could choose two different people.
In addition to these components, there are so many other important features of a good estate plan. If you have not yet started creating your estate plan but would like to get started, you should contact a law firm in your city that offers estate planning legal services. Reach out to a company such as Skeen Law Offices to learn more.
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