Online Power of Attorney

[investorjon]

Hi,

I need to create a Durable Power of Attorney and hope to save money doing so. I live in California and it will be used to give my spouse the same financial privileges at our credit union as myself. Has anyone used an online form service (i.e. Nolo, Legal Zoom) to do something like this?

Thanks,
Jon

[nalor511]

Hi,

I need to create a Durable Power of Attorney and hope to save money doing so. I live in California and it will be used to give my spouse the same financial privileges at our credit union as myself. Has anyone used an online form service (i.e. Nolo, Legal Zoom) to do something like this?

Thanks,
Jon

Poa needs to be notarized, how would that work?

[ResearchMed]

Hi,

I need to create a Durable Power of Attorney and hope to save money doing so. I live in California and it will be used to give my spouse the same financial privileges at our credit union as myself. Has anyone used an online form service (i.e. Nolo, Legal Zoom) to do something like this?

Thanks,
Jon

Poa needs to be notarized, how would that work?

It is possible to get things notarized online these days. Sounds odd, but it's true.

However, there is sometimes real difficulty getting PoA's accepted, so maybe check in advance about using the "right" PoA form and also if e-notarization would be acceptable.

This is something that you don't want to wait until it is truly needed, and then find out there is a problem.

RM

[Lastrun]

California has a statutory form power of attorney last time I checked. Many states have statutory forms in the state code.

https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/probate-co ... -4401.html

http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/dca/1 ... torney.pdf

Google around to make sure this is still current.

[increment]

I need to create a Durable Power of Attorney and hope to save money doing so. I live in California and it will be used to give my spouse the same financial privileges at our credit union as myself.

For the purpose of your credit union, have you asked how they'd like to accomplish this? They may have their own form and may be reluctant to honor some other document you hand them.

[investorjon]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I decided to call the CU for a third time and spoke to someone else. They got me in touch with the proper department and turns out I don't need the power of attorney.

[quantAndHold]

For what you want, the CU probably has a form that they want you to use.

For other kinds of PoA’s, you can actually buy the forms at Staples and Office Depot.

[Kagord]

For what you want, the CU probably has a form that they want you to use.

For the few times I had to take over accounts, banks, hospital paperwork, insurance, title companies, IRS/State tax board, SSA, medicare and investment firms did not take the "state approved version" of a power of attorney. They each had their own forms (SSA uses Representative Payee appointment) and would not honor a generic, properly executed POA. The other option was to hire an attorney to force the aforementioned to use the standard POA, which could take months and expense going back and forth. Utilities was the exceptions, most of them took the POA.

So, a POA is good to have as a last resort, but it is practically worthless. It's better to set up POAs at each firm with their POA process.

[JaneyLH]

For what you want, the CU probably has a form that they want you to use.

So, a POA is good to have as a last resort, but it is practically worthless. It's better to set up POAs at each firm with their POA process.

Having just gone through this, let me add +1

Best to set up POA in advance with each and every financial institution. They all have their own forms and requirements... and they all want to work directly with the account owner. Tremendous difficulty if you hold POA for someone who has dementia.

[quantAndHold]

For what you want, the CU probably has a form that they want you to use.

So, a POA is good to have as a last resort, but it is practically worthless. It's better to set up POAs at each firm with their POA process.

Having just gone through this, let me add +1

Best to set up POA in advance with each and every financial institution. They all have their own forms and requirements... and they all want to work directly with the account owner. Tremendous difficulty if you hold POA for someone who has dementia.

I had to do this (POA) for person on hospice with severe cognitive issues, but no dementia diagnosis. Every financial institution had their own way of doing things. Fortunately, the financial institutions he was using all honored the POA for the 11th hour estate planning I was trying to do. I think one of the keys was that what I was trying to do was something that couldn’t be construed as benefitting me personally. He had set his accounts up in a way where I would have inherited 100%, which wasn’t what he intended, and I ran around and fixed that a week before he died. Once they figured out what I was doing and why, the legal departments all approved it.