Caring for a parent? Request a power of attorney – MoneySense

Believe it or not, there was once a time when you could walk into a local bank branch or doctor’s office and talk to someone you might know or have a good working relationship to help you.

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

In a world full of anonymous avatars, online scams, and deepfakes, companies and financial institutions must do their best to validate who you are and your legal authority to speak and take action on your parents’ behalf. The easiest ticket to open doors and empower yourself to make decisions on behalf of our loved ones is the power of attorney document.

What is a power of attorney?

A power of attorney (POA) is a legal document that grants one person, several people, or a legal entity the authority to make financial or health-related decisions on behalf of another person. The POA document becomes relevant when a person is unable to make decisions due to cognitive decline or other health-related issues.

A POA gives healthcare providers the authority to pay bills, manage investments, facilitate real estate sales, open/cancel accounts, and handle banking tasks so that financial responsibilities are handled seamlessly. It also empowers healthcare providers to make healthcare decisions.

We are often told that the most important legal document we must prepare is our will, and it is an important document… when we enter the Great Beyond. As long as we are still breathing – and more specifically, as we lose our ability to think for ourselves and function independently – the POA is like a pass for people we trust to take actions on our behalf that we trust will be in our best interests, both financially and health-wise.

The POA doesn’t get enough love. When I went with my parents to make our will many years ago, the lawyer gave us a few more documents for us all to sign, which I had never heard of at the time. They were the POA documents. We didn’t think about it and signed them, not thinking about how profoundly those documents would impact my life and ultimately my father’s. Sometimes I stop and wonder how without these resources I could have done what I was able to do: manage my father’s finances and his healthcare needs.

While there are procedures that allow you to represent your parents without parental consent, the reality is that they are extremely time-consuming, require an abundance of documentation to validate, and involve numerous, awkward back-and-forth conversations with companies, each of which has their own specific vetting procedures.

How power of attorney works

You can designate one person, multiple people, or an entity as your POA. If you want to appoint more than one person (for example, your siblings), the POA must specify that your representatives are named jointly or severally. This means that all decisions made on your behalf must be made as a group and everyone must collectively support the decision. Otherwise, everyone in the group can make the decision alone (jointly and severally).

This is important from a logistics perspective; If the people you designate as POA live in different locations or don’t live near you, having a joint and several provision in the POA gives them more flexibility in authorizing actions in a timely manner. In other situations, family dynamics may warrant making decisions as a group. In my case, my father declared me and my mother jointly and severally POAs so that I could make quick decisions independently. My mother’s health was not the best, plus I lived in Toronto and my parents in Ottawa.

There are several POA documents that can be prepared. The most common are powers of attorney for personal property and powers of attorney for personal care.

The Personal Property POA gives the attorney (the person(s) you want to represent) the authority to handle financial transactions and make business decisions on your behalf. In my father’s case, I recently sold his home in Ottawa as his POA for personal property and facilitated all decisions and actions on his behalf, including marketing the property, signing all agreements, and canceling his home insurance, utility, cable, and home phone bills.

What further complicated matters was that the closing date was pushed back and I had already canceled all these accounts, especially his home insurance. I had to call the insurance company back and request an extension of the policy. Because I was added as POA to my father’s account and provided the POA document, the agent was able to renew the policy on the spot. If I didn’t have that document, the policy would have been canceled. If anything were to happen to the house, my father would pay the costs.

Varieties of POA

There is also a POA document for personal care, which gives the attorney the authority to make medical and healthcare decisions if the elderly party becomes incapacitated. This includes possible end-of-life decisions and decisions about do not resuscitate (DNR). For example, if you go into cardiac arrest while in the hospital, the DNR means you authorize the doctors and staff to stop trying to save you and essentially let you die. As cruel as that sounds, it can be a decision that eases the person’s suffering and allows him or her to die in peace.

As my father’s cognitive abilities steadily declined, I had to make decisions ranging from approving medical tests to making appointments and making decisions about selecting long-term nursing homes. In my mother’s case, she suffered a stroke and reached a stage where she became incapacitated. Because she designated me as her POA for personal care, I had the authority to make decisions on her behalf regarding her health, including a decision to allow the doctors to intubate her.

An attorney can create a POA document for you, which you sign and receive a copy of. In our internet age, there are cheaper online templates that you can purchase and generate. However, care must be taken to ensure that all elements in the document remain legally valid.