Durable Power of Attorney for Property Management

Powers of attorney for property management are very similar to those pertaining to health care, except they appoint a person to manage your assets.  These devices are very flexible and you can provide an agent with very broad power to manage all of your assets or more limited power to manage, for example, one bank account or piece of real property.  The agent you choose to manage your assets when you become incapcitated can do such things as manage a business, make gifts, create or revoke trusts, purchase or sell assets in a trust, tax planning and insurance matters.  Spouses often appoint one another as their agents.  The powers of attorney may be amended or revoked (cancelled) at any time you are legally competent.   

If you don't have a durable power of attorney for property management, decisions about your assets cannot be made until a court appoints a conservatorship of your estate.  This can take time during which deadlines are missed, may not result in the appointment of a person acceptable to you, entails expenses (e.g., court and attorney fees), is cumbersome as the court will manage the conduct of the agent and is a public proceeding.

A living trust can also provide a vehicle to manage assets when you become incapacitated.  However, the trustee of the living trust may only manage property that is in the trust.  Since some property is not suitable for a trust or you may forget to transfer later acquired property to a trust, the power of attorney for property management is usually used in conjunction with a living trust in order to provide for property outside of a living trust.