Estate planning in northern california commonly asked questions and answers from Timothy Murphy There are many different types of issues your estate plan will allow you to address, such as the question of what you want to happen if you become incapacitated. Learn more about Estate Planning in Northern California in this presentation.
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Commonly Asked Questions About Your Rights in a Power of Attorney
You might know that a power of attorney will play a key role in any estate plan you choose to create. What you might not realize, however, is that by creating a power of attorney, you give decision-making authority to other people. Those people will have the legal right to make decisions for you. People who first learned of this delegation of authority sometimes hesitate in making powers of attorney because they are uncomfortable with the idea of giving away their decision-making rights. Fortunately, you don’t have to be worried about losing your abilities to make your own decisions when you create a power of attorney. Let’s take a look at some commonly asked questions. What rights do I have after I create a power of attorney? A person who makes a power of attorney is called a principal. The principal gives decision-making abilities to the chosen representative. That representative will be either a person or an organization, and will become known as your agent or attorney-in-fact.
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Serving Under a Power of Attorney: Commonly Asked Questions
If you are ever asked to serve as an agent under a power of attorney, there are several issues you will need to consider before you accept. Serving as an agent comes with both responsibilities and privileges. The person asking you to serve as an agent trusts you enough to offer you the position, but you shouldn’t accept until you have a better understanding of what it entails. Here are some commonly asked questions many people have about serving as an agent under a power of attorney. What will be my responsibility as an agent? That depends. No two power of attorney documents are identical, but all of them will state what decision-making rights you will receive. Powers of attorney are typically divided into two main types: health care and financial. Most powers of attorney will require you to make various types of decisions in certain circumstances. Some powers of attorney are broad in the authority they convey, while others are more limited. In any event, you will have to read the p
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Commonly Believed Myths About Powers of Attorney
Like other estate planning tools, powers of attorney must meet the legal standards imposed by state law. Though these documents are flexible and powerful, a lot of people don’t really know much about them. To help you better understand powers of attorney, let’s take a little time to look at some of the commonly held myths about these documents. Myth 1. Powers of attorney involve lawyers. This myth is entirely understandable because of the legal terminology used with powers of attorney. When we talk about a power of attorney, we are talking about a type of legal document. Though it is named “power of attorney,” the document does not involve lawyers in any way. (While you should always have an experienced and qualified lawyer create any legal document you intend to use, this isn’t where powers of attorney get their name.) You don’t have to be a lawyer to create a power of attorney, nor do you have to appoint an attorney as your agent when you create these documents. Further
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The Estate Inventory – 3 Commonly Asked Questions
Question 1: What is an estate inventory? After a person dies, the personal representative, also known as an executor, has responsibility to perform specific tasks in order to settle all of the deceased person’s affairs. One of these tasks is to distribute all the property the deceased person owned. Before an executor can do this, however, he or she has to find out exactly what is in the estate. (The estate is simply the collection of property left behind by a deceased person.) The estate inventory is a comprehensive list of all the assets and obligations the deceased person had. Question 2: How do I create an estate inventory? All states have their own requirements when it comes to estate inventories, though they are all very similar. In a probate proceeding, the executor lists all the estate property by category, such as real estate, personal property, and debts. You also have to list the value of the property. If you don’t know the value you’ll have to use estimates or obtain
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Ending a Power of Attorney: Commonly Asked Questions
Question 1: Can I cancel a power of attorney? Someone who makes a power of attorney and grants another person the authority to act on your behalf is known as a principal, while the person or organization you appoint is known as your agent or your attorney-in-fact. As the principal you maintain the ability to end the power of attorney whenever you like. You can do this for any reason at all, or for no reason. Question 2: When can I cancel my power of attorney? As a principal you can terminate an agent’s authority at any time. However, if you created a durable power of attorney that granted your agent the ability to act after you lost capacity, you cannot cancel the power if you have since become incapacitated. Cancelling your power of attorney requires you to remain of sound mind, and if you lose your mental faculties you can only cancel the power once you regain your ability to make knowing choices. Question 3: Can I cancel the power if I am an agent? If you’ve been appointed as a
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Northern California Center for Estate Planning and Elder Law 