What would happen if you had a car accident tomorrow and went into a coma? Who would pay your bills? Take care of your home? Pets? Children? Who would make sure your insurance is paying your benefits properly?
And how would those people know what do to?
The best way to protect yourself, your finances, and your other affairs during a time of disability is to execute a Columbus Durable Power of Attorney: a document in which you grant powers to act on your behalf in financial and legal affairs to another person. Those powers can be very broad or very narrow, and you can specify when those powers go into effect.
The Columbus Durable Power of Attorney allows the person you designate to act on your behalf with nothing more than the document itself. Without one, a family member or friend would be required to obtain a court order naming him or her guardian of your affairs, and the court would supervise everything that person does on your behalf. It is an expensive and cumbersome process.
A person acting under a Columbus Durable Power of Attorney, called an attorney-in-fact, does so without court supervision. For example: should your attorney-in-fact need to pay your mortgage, from your bank account, he or she would simply go to the bank with the document and an ID, show both to the teller, and conduct business as needed.
Choosing your attorney-in-fact is, of course, a very important decision. You should choose someone you trust to act in your best interests, someone who is sophisticated and experienced enough to deal with your finances and affairs without assistance, and someone who knows you well enough to anticipate problems that might arise in your life. Many, but not all, of our clients choose their spouse as the primary attorney-in-fact, and an adult child as an alternate should the spouse become unavailable.
You might ask: can’t my spouse manage my affairs without a Columbus Durable Power of Attorney by virtue of our marriage? The answer is no. If you have individual bank, investment, or retirement accounts, a car that is titled to you alone, or if you own real property in your name alone, your spouse cannot manage that property unless you give him or her the power to do so in a proper Durable Power of Attorney.
The Columbus Durable Power of Attorney is a useful tool in many circumstances beyond disability. Are you planning to travel outside the country for an extended period of time? For work or a religious mission? Executing a Columbus Durable Power of Attorney before you leave will give someone you trust the power to manage your affairs, and deal with any problems that pop up, while you are away.
We encourage most everyone to execute a Columbus Durable Power of Attorney as part of your comprehensive estate plan. It is an important and valuable tool.