A good power of attorney allow you to protect your interests when you aren’t able to protect them yourself. Powers of attorney in Minnesota give you the ability to appoint others to help you manage your affairs. Whether you need people to step in because you’ve been sidelined by an illness or injury, or simply want to grant others the ability to represent your interests, you can accomplish these goals by creating the appropriate power of attorney.
The broad abilities granted by a power of attorney requires caution when creating or using these important legal documents. In recent years there have been many stories about people who have misused their authority granted by a power of attorney. If you are creating these documents as part of an estate plan, here are several tips you want to keep in mind as you review them and discuss the details with your estate planning lawyer.
Powers of Attorney in Time
The legal requirements for creating a power of attorney in North Dakota and Minnesota are fairly simple, but the practical requirements are something different altogether. When you give power of attorney to someone, that person becomes known as your agent or your attorney-in-fact. Once granting the power, your representative immediately gains specific legal rights and obligations.
Many powers of attorney convey broad powers to an agent. When that agent acts, he or she often does so by interacting with third parties. Many third parties know that powers of attorney are very powerful legal documents. Because of this, they often use an abundance of caution when interacting with an agent.
One way third parties are cautious is that they sometimes refuse to interact with an agent if a power of attorney was granted a long time ago. There is no time limit power of attorney documents, but some third parties will only accept powers of attorney if they are sure the principle—you—created the power recently. Because of this, it can be important to review and update your powers of attorney every year, or even every six months.
Power of Attorney in Minnesota Policies
In theory, creating a power of attorney that complies with the law will give your agent all the necessary proof that he or she is acting on your behalf. In practice, however, many third parties have their own policies about engaging in business with an agent.
If you are using a power of attorney as a part of your estate plan, it’s often a good idea to speak to third parties with whom you know your agent will interact before you create the document. Asking those third parties if there are any policies they require of agents under power of attorney, and then creating a document that meets those policies, will ensure that you create a useful document.
If you’d like to learn more about powers of attorney, as well as other estate planning tools, sign up for one of our upcoming free seminars. You can take a look at a list of our upcoming seminar schedule or contact our office for more details.
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