Victorville Financial Power of Attorney Planning

Start with the decisions you want covered

A financial power of attorney concerns financial decisions. A health-care directive concerns health-care decisions; one should not be treated as a substitute for the other. Estate planning involves coordinating documents and asset arrangements, so consider the financial document in the context of your overall plan.

Make a list of the financial matters you would want someone to address if you could not manage them yourself. Use that list to guide a conversation about the responsibilities you intend to assign and how they fit with your other documents and asset arrangements.

• Which recurring or time-sensitive financial matters would you want someone to help manage?
• What records or account information would help that person understand your finances?
• Are there decisions you want to discuss separately because they concern health care rather than finances?

Choose a person and clarify the role

Think about whether the person you are considering can understand your priorities, communicate clearly, and keep track of financial information. Discuss the responsibilities you have in mind before naming anyone. A shared understanding can help the person know what you expect and identify questions that need to be resolved while you can explain your wishes.

The person named in a financial power of attorney is not thereby assigned health-care decision-making through that financial document. Keep health-care preferences and the person you want to address them in a separate discussion about health-care planning.

• Talk through the kinds of financial decisions you expect the person to handle.
• Identify any matters you do not intend to include and ask how those limits should be addressed.
• Consider who could step in if your first choice is unavailable, and discuss that possibility during planning.

Prepare an asset and institution inventory

An organized inventory can make the intended responsibilities easier to discuss. Record the institutions where you hold accounts or other financial relationships, the general purpose of each, and where relevant records can be found. Do not include passwords or other sensitive access credentials in a general planning list.

Ask each institution what information or documentation it may request before it will work with a person acting under a power of attorney. Requirements and processes can differ, so do not assume that one document or a planning conversation guarantees acceptance everywhere. Raise any institution-specific concerns when discussing the document.

• List financial institutions and the records associated with them.
• Note recurring obligations or financial tasks that someone may need to understand.
• Write down questions about how an institution handles a power of attorney.

Understand the boundary at death

A power of attorney terminates when the principal dies. It is therefore not a substitute for planning how assets will be handled after death. Consider how the financial power of attorney fits with the rest of your estate plan, including your documents and asset arrangements.

If the person you name needs authority beyond the period covered by the power of attorney, ask what additional planning or authority may be relevant. The appropriate next step depends on your circumstances; the power of attorney alone does not continue after death.

Plan from Victorville with statewide virtual service

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services statewide. For a Victorville planning conversation, bring your list of intended responsibilities, asset and institution inventory, and questions about how the financial document fits with your other planning.