Michigan Power of Attorney
If you have been working with a Michigan estate planning attorney you probably know all about powers of attorney, and how they can benefit you. You may have several Michigan powers of attorney already in your filing cabinet.
Most estate plans include a couple of "durable" powers of attorney. These would be for medical purposes and for finances. A health care directive can be added to you medical power of attorney. This would give specific instructions for your health care providers.
A Michigan durable medical power of attorney allows someone you appoint to make health related decisions for you, if at any time you are unable. Your Michigan durable financial power of attorney is much the same, allowing your agent to handle all of your finances for you. Durable powers of attorney are effective immediately and remain in effect if you become mentally unfit to make decisions. Non-durable powers of attorney are effective immediately also but become void if you are ever declared mentally incompetent. A springing power of attorney is only effective when a certain event happens, such as a doctor declaring you mentally unable to make decisions.
In Michigan, the person you give power to is called an attorney-in-fact. It is vary common, for estate planning purposes, to assign your spouse as your attorney-in-fact. Be sure and change your powers of attorney if you ever get a divorce as the state of Michigan does not do this for you automatically. If fact, the best time to destroy these documents is when the divorce papers are first filed.
It is very possible you may also be advised to have at least is single non-durable general power of attorney with your spouse listed as the attorney-in-fact. There are several reasons for this, the main one being, if for any reason you are unable to take care of any important matter your spouse would be able to. Just being your spouse does not always give this person the right to sign for you on legal documents, this would make sure they could always do that.
Having a non-durable power of attorney for when you are mentally sound and a durable power of attorney for when you are not is just good estate planning. These Michigan power of attorney forms are easy to find at Legal Zoom. It might be a good idea to have them checked over by your attorney if you are unsure about anything on the form.
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