Connecticut Power of Attorney
Are you prepared should an accident leave you mentally unable to make decisions concerning you health care? While there are several ways for your spouse to obtain the legal authority to make decisions for you, they can involve court orders and time delays. Having a Connecticut durable medical power of attorney in place, before the accident, gives your agent immediate authority.
The term durable makes a power of attorney effective when you are mentally incapacitated. A normal power of attorney is just the opposite, it becomes void should you ever become incapable of making decisions.
In Connecticut, the person you assign authority to is called your attorney-in-fact. If your spouse has been named your attorney-in-fact on any of your power of attorneys, and you get divorced, be sure to change them. Many states automatically void all power of attorneys where a divorce takes place and a spouse is the attorney-in-fact. Your Connecticut power of attorney will remain in effect for years if you do not change it. What a shock it would be to wake up several days after a bad accident to find your ex has cleaned you out.
Your Connecticut estate planning attorney may advice you to include two durable power of attorneys in your estate plan. This would be good advice. One document would be for financial concerns and the other for all health issues. Again, these are power of attorneys that would only be used in case of an accident or serious illness. These documents are part of being prepared for anything, and that is an important part of estate planning.
Most of your everyday needs are taken care of special power of attorneys. You may use a special vehicle power of attorney to give your attorney-in-fact the right to sign a vehicle title for you. General power of attorneys grant a much wider range of authority and might be used if you were traveling out of the country. This would allow someone at home to handle all of your affairs for you, should the need arise. There may be an event you know is upcoming, such as a real estate closing, or a child enrolling in school. These two matters could be handled with special power of attorneys, one for real estate and one for children. One general power of attorney would do the same thing, but with a much wider range of power. Leaving someone behind with a Connecticut general power of attorney would be a way of taking care of anything that could possibly happen and needs immediate attention.
Attorneys prepare these documents all the time and would know exactly what you need and where to file them. They are, however, simple enough you could do it yourself. Legal Zoom has Connecticut power of attorney forms and they are open 24/7.
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