Your Financial Power Of Attorney May Fail You When You Need It Most
Opinion: Your Financial Power Of Attorney May Fail You When You Need It Most
Published: Sept. 8, 2021 at 7:44 a.m. ET By CD Moriarty
The legal documents — signed, witnessed and paid for — are being rejected by financial-services companies
Aging is hard. And aging in our legal and financial world can be confusing, even for those without cognitive impairment. More than half of adults in the U.S. have a financial power of attorney. Which is good, but will those legal documents be honored when they are needed? For the 40% of Americans who have done their estate planning, there is no guarantee. The answer is: It depends.
Without a national standard of legal practice, complications and a tangle of paperwork are greater than necessary. Well-meaning financial planners and legal professionals insist on clients’ valid state legal documents, including financial power of attorney (POA). But those legal documents — signed, witnessed and paid for — are being rejected by financial-services companies, whose compliance departments want their own version of a POA to protect their interests. This is true despite the fact that the Uniformed Power of Attorney Act was adopted in 2016 in the Uniformed Probate Code (UPC) of the U.S.
The best legal minds in the country serve on the Uniformed Law Commission and created this POA act. Yet, as a financial professional, I have seen this fail numerous times.
Such as for my client Maria (whose last name I will withhold), who was caregiving for her husband, Jack, who had early-stage Alzheimer’s. Despite having arranged their estate plan less than five years ago, Maria was struggling and needed help with her power of attorney.
The investment companies that held her husband’s IRAs and a credit card company did not accept the legal document their lawyer drew up. She thought she had done everything right but was no longer sure of what to sign or whom to trust, as she was overwhelmed.
To continue reading, please go to the original article here: