Choosing the Person Who Will Speak for You

Two different jobs

A durable power of attorney lets someone handle money on your behalf — paying bills, managing accounts, dealing with a mortgage or an insurer. An advance health care directive names someone to make medical decisions and records what you want done. They are separate roles and they do not have to be the same person.

What "durable" means

An ordinary power of attorney ends the moment you lose capacity — which is the moment you need it. "Durable" means it survives that. In California a power of attorney is durable only if it says so in the document. Check for the sentence; it is the entire point.

Picking your financial agent

The question is not who you love most. It is who will do unglamorous administrative work, carefully, for months, while upset. Consider:

• Will they actually do it? Ask before you name them. People are frequently named without ever being told.
• Are they organised with their own money? Your agent must keep records and not mix your funds with theirs.
• Can they say no? Your agent may face pressure from relatives who want a decision reversed. They need to be able to hold a line.
• Are they reachable? An agent in another country, nine time zones away, cannot sign for a bank in the afternoon.

Picking your health care agent

Different qualities. This person may have to sit in a hospital corridor and repeat what you wanted to a doctor, and then to relatives who disagree. Choose someone who will follow your wishes rather than substitute their own, and who does not fall apart in a crisis. The most devoted family member is not always the right choice.

Always name an alternate

Your first choice may be unavailable, unwilling when the time comes, or involved in the same accident. Naming a second and third agent costs nothing and prevents the gap that otherwise ends in a conservatorship petition.

Then tell them

A directive that nobody can find does not help anyone. Give copies to your agents, to your doctor, and keep one somewhere your family will look. This is the practical reason some people keep a printed, tabbed copy of the whole plan at home rather than only a file on a laptop.

Review it after life changes

A divorce, a death, a falling-out, a move — any of these can make yesterday's choice the wrong one. These documents are easy to replace. Re-read them after anything significant.

This article is general information about California law, not legal advice about your situation. My Wise Legacy is a document preparation service and not a law firm.