Property or Financial Powers of AttorneyProperty or Financial Powers of Attorney

Property or financial powers of attorney (POAs) are ubiquitous in estate planning and with very good reason. The likelihood of becoming incapacitated prior to death is significantly greater than the risk of dying at any particular time.¹ Therefore, the actuarial odds are that the property or financial POA will be needed before other estate-planning documents are required.

Many estate planners pay lip service to the fact that the property or financial POA is the most important estate-planning document. However, the sad fact is that the POA too often is treated as a throw-in document that’s not even reviewed by the principal prior to execution. Few estate planners spend any time customizing a POA for a particular client. Because of this pra...