Use A Power Of Attorney

A Guide On How To Use A Power Of Attorney

A Power of Attorney is document that is legally binding in nature, and can be used to bestow powers or authority to an individual to manage some important affairs of the life of the person who signs the document. This could be a decision regarding medical, financial, legal, commercial or other activity. You can easily download and print a free power of attorney form, and use it for personal reasons. But there are some important things to remember before using a power of attorney.

Choose an Attorney-in-fact with care

This is the Agent or the person who you appoint for the management of your affairs, and needs to be a trusted person. The keyword here is “trusted”, and you actually need to entrust someone who is trustable. It could be a relative, an offspring or some other person who you regard as reliable. However, you must understand that a person who might seem to be ‘reliable’ might actually start showing his true colors once you bestow very important authorities on him / her. This has been found in many cases. Thus, you have to choose an Attorney-in-fact with a lot of care.

Make the powers limited by nature

This is one of the best things that you should do, in case you fear that the powers that you bestow on the agent could be misused by him or her. Get in touch with a lawyer who specializes in estate planning, power of attorney forms etc, and get some consultation on how to use proper language to authorize an attorney-in-fact enough, but not so much as to make him able to misuse those authorities – leaving you powerless. You can download an Arizona power of attorney form and customize it with proper language.

Notarized or not

In some states, a North Carolina durable power of attorney form has to be notarized in order to be regarded as legally valid. In others, there is no mandatory law or rule regarding notarization. In any case, it is a good idea to know about the laws regarding POA notarization in your state, and act accordingly.