Power of Attorney: Important Considerations
This post continues on the previous one. In another article, linked to by Professor Beyer, you will find important considerations for your power of attorney.
Specifically, the author mentions reasons that financial institutions commonly reject powers of attorney.
•The financial institution may not be familiar with the person given power of attorney and may be worried about fraud.
•The institution may be concerned that the power of attorney has been revoked.
"If you change it or revoke it, you need to tell us, otherwise we will assume this is good until you tell us," Mr. Daugherty said.
•There's a risk that the person given power of attorney may exceed his or her authority.
Because of these risks, you should plan for them to avoid them. If you do not, then:
"You don't necessarily know it's a problem until it's too late to fix it because you don't generally act on a power of attorney unless you need to, and when you need to, you can't," Mr. Sharpe said.
His clients Sandy and Gary Mayfield of Denton ran into problems when they were buying their home last year while Mr. Mayfield was on an overseas assignment.
Mrs. Mayfield said they had to revise their power of attorney four times. And, on the day the deal closed, the title company required Mr. Mayfield to call from his international location to verify that he was alive and that he gave his wife power of attorney to handle the transaction.
"It was crazy," Mrs. Mayfield said. "I have never gone through such a hassle in my life. What good does this piece of paper do if they're not going to honor it?"The house purchase was eventually completed.
