well hi there folks this is Bill O’Leary um and so in this YouTube video I’m going to be talking about what a power of attorney is so I’d like uh you to learn three things in this video number one what a power of attorney is obviously uh two the different types of Powers of Attorney and and and three how a power of attorney can be used so again by way of quick intro my name is Bill O’Leary I’m an attorney that where I focus on estate planning elder law and probate and trust and trust and my firm is Legacy planning Law Group in.
Jacksonville Florida so to the topic at hand a very important part of good planning for your Affairs is is a power of attorney I’m sure all of you have heard of it a power of attorney is a it’s a legal document that lets someone else act on your behalf now a power of attorney sometimes called a POA for sure can be especially helpful uh for older people so they can choose a trusted person to act on their behalf when they can’t uh handle their Affairs you can plan ahead by creating a POA to appoint a basically a substitute.
decision maker and that’s what we call an agent now a power of attorney can deal with Health Care matters it’s known by several different names in Florida the most common is it was called a healthcare surrogate designation it’s also known as either a healthcare proxy or Healthcare power of attorney in other states uh a power of attorney can also deal with financial matters and that’s the the thing I want to focus on in this video a financial power of attorney it’s a legal tool to help plan for the.
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possibility that you won’t be able to make important financial decisions at some point due to let’s say things like you know dementia maybe traumatic brain injury or some other impairment that can affect your mental function a financial POA is often referred to as a durable power of attorney and all that simply means is that it continues to be in effect even after you become income incapacitated it doesn’t end at that point but it continues on it sort of durates uh into the future now like I said a POA gives somebody.
like a trusted family member the power to act on your behalf this trusted person is known as your agent sometimes uh you might see in a POA document the term attorney in fact that’s just another word or term that’s used for agent but agent is more common you can name one or more persons in your POA as your Asian so one way to handle this is to name an initial agent and then backups what are called successor agents that would step up if the initial agent can’t act anymore or you can name several people to act together at the.
same time they’re called co-agents where any one of them can act uh to help you a POA can be limited uh in nature limited to a specific activity let’s say like closing on a house or it can be General in nature also a POA can either be uh given on a temporary basis or on a permanent basis and I will tell you the most common kind of Poa is one that is in general in general in nature which gives a wide array of powers and it’s permanent now remember with the power of attorney you can you can revoke it at any time that you want.
so even though it may Grant authorities on a permanent basis it really isn’t permanent another um the interesting thing if you will about a POA it can either be one that goes into effect right away even though you’re in good health now or it can be a type of Poa that does not go into effect right away but only kicks in later if and when you become incapacitated this kind is what we call a springing power of attorney what that means is again the POA doesn’t kick right kick in right away as long as you’re healthy it’s not.
effective and so although you’ve assigned it your appointed agent can’t use it while you are healthy they can only use it if and when you become incapacitated so again at that point the POA Springs to life now certainly a springing power of attorney is a less risky proposition for you the person that signs it because you really would not have any concern that somebody that you’ve appointed could walk it down to the bank and drain your account while you’re still healthy now it’s important.
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to know springing Powers of Attorney are no longer allowed in Florida ever since 2011 we no longer allow them so I will tell you this we have a lot of sort of old poas floating out there you really need to get your POA updated now with a valid POA your agent can basically take any action that is permitted in that legal document and so typically what’s going to happen is that your agent is going to have to present the actual POA legal document in order to invoke or use the power that they’re trying to use so.
for example let’s say your agent is um acting on your behalf to sell a car well DMV is going to require that the POA be presented uh before uh your agent can buy or sell the car uh what if your agent is trying to buy or sell a property real estate okay the POA is going to have to be presented to the title company or maybe your agent is trying to open or close a bank account again they’re going to have to present the POA to the bank now that said if we’re talking about sort of mundane day-to-day transactions like your agent.
writing a check for you on an account that they’ve already been given authority to they’re not going to have to present the POA every time they have to write a check one last thing let’s say you don’t have a POA in place and you then get to the point where you can’t manage your Affairs anymore guess what happens the court system gets involved somebody’s gonna have to go down to court and ask a judge to appoint them as your legal guardian this is expensive because a lawyer has to get involved most people.
don’t want to impose that burden on loved ones uh you know in addition to sort of the cost by the way a guardianship legal case is public so you know your entire uh incapacity is on public display for everyone uh to see so it’s much better to be proactive create a POA now to avoid that mess later so if you’d like to know just a little bit more about what a power of attorney is and maybe how we could help you get that in place we would love to talk to you so schedule a free 15-minute Discovery phone call sort of an easy.
first step we encourage you to do and scheduling is really easy yeah you can go to our website and and select the book your free phone call button but better than that uh just uh click on the link that appears in this video takes you right to our booking calendar pick the day and time.