Powers of Attorney Archives

Who should I name in my healthcare power of attorney?

by April Harris Jackson | Apr 13, 2022 | Elder Law, Estate Plan, Health and Aging, Powers of Attorney

Your medical power of attorney, also known as your healthcare power of attorney (HPOA), should name somebody who is accessible in an emergency. This is someone who will naturally be right by your side or someone who will be available by cell phone. This person is known as your “agent” for healthcare decisions.

Who is the best person for the job?

The ideal candidate for a healthcare agent is someone who can meet these basic qualifications:

You trust their judgment

It’s good to have somebody who is already in a position of making decisions with you and for you. Someone who you would trust to help you in carrying out the decisions that you have made. They also need to be able to take the information you have provided them and apply it to a different situation.

They can handle stress in an emergency

All medical emergencies are stressful. Pick an agent who has a history of making logical decisions at difficult times.

The agent will honor your values regarding medical decisions or end-of-life care

The agent you choose should be someone who knows you very well. You have discussed your values, goals, and preferences. Make sure your agent is someone who will act as your spokesperson and advocate.

You feel comfortable speaking to them about your death, dying, or care during incapacitation

In order to have a good healthcare agent, make sure that you are both comfortable discussing your values around death and dying. This is a serious topic that deserves a well-thought-out conversation. Be prepared to discuss what quality of life you want to have and what types of treatments you would want to have to maintain it. The more you speak together about your feelings towards death, dying, and treatments if incapacitated, the better your agent will be.

They will be available at any time

A good healthcare agent is someone who is going to be available when you need them. There’s no way for you to know when you will need your healthcare power of attorney. You need a reliable person who will answer the phone or make a return call as soon as they get the message that they are needed to make healthcare decisions for you.

Someone who lives nearby

Oftentimes it’s a good idea to choose an agent who lives close by. While not completely necessary, it is better to have an agent who will naturally come to the hospital to be with you during an emergency.

Someone who is younger than you

While not necessary, it is often very useful to have an agent who will likely outlive you.

close up of a person wearing leather shoes and blue jeans. They are standing on asphalt in front of arrows that point in several directions. The largest arrow says "Medical Decisions" — Choose someone who can be your proxy for medical decisions.

In conclusion

Again, your healthcare agent should be someone who is easily accessible. Someone that you feel comfortable discussing your wishes with, even though they may be uncomfortable topics, and someone who respects your choices and would help you carry them out. Most people pick their spouse or adult child to be their healthcare agent. However, if you have a medical professional in your family, that person may be a good choice depending on their relationship with you. Ultimately it is up to you to choose someone you are comfortable with making these types of medical decisions.

Why do you need a healthcare power of attorney?

While not all healthcare power of attorneys ever go into effect, it is important to have one in the case of an emergency. You never know when you will be unable to make decisions or communicate your decisions for yourself. If you need help with creating a healthcare power of attorney, medical directive, or other documents that formulate a well-thought-out estate plan, consider scheduling an initial call with us.

Should I Add My Child to My Bank Account?

by April Harris Jackson | May 16, 2019 | Family, Money, Powers of Attorney

By adding someone else to your bank account, you are giving them an ownership interest in whatever deposits you make into the account. What I often see is that the parent is the only one making deposits, but the child is handling transactions, usually to the parent’s benefit but sometimes in a way that might later be called into question.

Joint checking accounts with your children pose many issues

In the process of counseling clients, I often learn that an adult child has been added to a parent’s bank account as a joint owner. If this is something that you have been considering, please think again. While it can be fine under some circumstances, it can also cause problems down the road.

You will be responsible for your child’s unpaid debts

One danger to this is that if the adult children have an ownership interest in the account, and the child has unpaid debts, a creditor might try to collect the money owed to them out of the joint account, even though all the money belongs to Mom or Dad!

Your children will have issues with getting an equal share of your inheritance

Another sticky point of adding a child to a bank account is if you have more than one child. Often parents want their children to inherit equally and make arrangements for that through their wills or beneficiary designations. However, most joint bank accounts include a right of survivorship on the account paperwork so that if one account owner dies, the other account owner can continue using the account and gets to keep any money in the account. If you intend for your children to inherit equally, but only one of them gets the money in your bank account, that might cause some resentments and even lawsuits.

Give your children powers of attorney for finances instead

So what should you do instead? In most cases, I recommend designating someone you trust with your money to act as your attorney-in-fact for financial matters. By signing a Power of Attorney, this person will have the ability to manage your banking transactions, but will not have an ownership interest in your accounts that could cause the problems described above.

If you’re interested in obtaining a Power of Attorney or other estate planning documents, contact us to see how we can help.