POA’s are important estate planning tools that can be utilized to manage your personal, family, and business assets if you become ill or incapacitated, temporarily or permanently.
Will, also known as a Last Will and Testament
Someone once said, “There are two things in life that are for sure, death and taxes.” A last will and testament is a tool that can be used to direct how your worldly possessions are distributed after your death.
Durable Health Care Power of Attorney
Durable health care POA’s can be utilized to assign another person, or lawful agent, power of substitution for health and personal care decision making for you if you become unable to understand or communicate.
Combined Mental Health Care Declaration and Mental Health Power of Attorney
A combined mental health care declaration and mental health POA is similar to a durable health care power of attorney. However a mental health care declaration and POA can be utilized for more specific instructions regarding your desires for mental health care and treatments if they become medically necessary.
There are several different types of trusts that can be instituted to address specific needs. Trusts can be utilized for asset protection, to provide for care of minors or incapacitated people, for charitable purposes, tax planning, succession planning, and the general care of others. Make an appointment with Mentch Law to discuss if a trust is right for you.
A living will can be utilized by you to communicate your desires to your designated agent and health care provider. A living will only gives power to the agent if your attending physician determines that you lack the ability to understand or communicate health care decisions. You must also be permanently unconscious or have and end-stage medical condition that will result in death, even with the continuation of medical treatment. A living will can also be used for your donor instructions for specific anatomical body parts after death.
Digital assets are often overlooked, but have become very important and should likely be addressed in both your will and power of attorney (POA). Historically, executors under wills or agents under POA’s (fiduciaries) would simply check files and incoming postal mail to address things such as bank accounts, investment accounts, 401k’s, credit cards, utility bills, mortgages, and other open accounts. However, life in current times has in many instances become much more complex, more spread out, and most of all, MORE ONLINE. Regulations prohibit impersonation of another to access online accounts of another person that is living or dead. In the more paperless society that we have become, the possibility exists for others to not know about your bank accounts, investment accounts, and certain other assets, without some type of access to online information. Furthermore, cloud storage of online digital assets such as family pictures, or digital assets necessary to run a family owned business, might be inaccessible or destroyed. The Pennsylvania Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (“RUFADAA”) was approved July 23, 2020 relating to wills and Powers of Attorney. RUFADAA provides avenues for you to allow your executors under your will, or your agents under your POA, specific or limited means to manage your digital assets.
Does your estate plan need updated?
The Pennsylvania Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (“RUFADAA”) was approved July 23, 2020 relating to wills and Powers of Attorney
Amendments to 20 Pa. C.S. Chapter 56 Powers of Attorney became effective January 1, 2015
A Mental Health Care Power of Attorney automatically terminates two years after execution
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