Can a Power of Attorney Change a Will?
Can a Power of Attorney Change a Will?
Eric Reed Fri, September 17, 2021, 12:53 PM
Power of attorney is one of the most important legal forms for estate and elder care planning. Along with wills and trust documents, it is a critical document for arranging one’s affairs. A power of attorney cannot change a properly written will. However, such a person can make many changes to the assets surrounding that estate.
Here is how it works. Estate planning can get complicated, quickly; working with a financial advisor goes a long way to simplifying the challenge. Estate planning can get complicated, but working with a financial advisor is one of the best ways to clarify and even simplify the challenge.
What Is Power of Attorney?
Power of attorney is when you assign someone the authority to make legally binding decisions on your behalf. This can mean managing financial assets, making choices regarding medical care, signing contracts and other commitments. A power of attorney can access confidential materials and their decisions are as binding as if you had made them yourself.
Most of the time power of attorney is a limited grant of authority. That is to say, you will give someone power of attorney to do specific things or to act within a specific scope. For example, the IRS ordinarily would not accept taxes filed by a third party; you must file your taxes yourself.
However, assigning power of attorney to your tax preparer gives that person the authority to file your taxes as though you had done so yourself. This is a common practice and lets the tax preparer see a client’s confidential IRS and bank records, as well as filing taxes on the client’s behalf. Such power, however, doesn’t allow them to sign contracts in your name or sell your car. Their authority is limited to reviewing your finances and filing documents with the IRS.
In some cases you may assign what’s known as general power of attorney. This is one of three types of durable power of attorney (the other two are special power of attorney and healthcare or medical power of attorney).
With a general power of attorney, the person can make just about any decisions at all on your behalf while the power of attorney assignment remains valid. People will often make a general assignment to a trusted family member or long-time friend if they are going to be unreachable or incapacitated.
Power of Attorney Cannot Change a Will
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