Power of Attorney

When my husband was alive we had a durable power of attorney for each other. Now that I am a widow I think I should make my daughter my power attorney in case something happens to me while I am still alive. However, at this point in time I haven’t decided whether I am going to stay in Connecticut or move to Atlanta to be closer to my daughters family. If I do a power of attorney for her while I am living in Connecticut will it still be valid if I subsequently decide to move to Atlanta.

Jimtoo could bettere answer this, but when my dad passed away in Texas, my brother in Colorado had Power of Attorney for my mom.

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I don’t know the specific law in either state, but most states recognize a POA that was valid in the state where written. The same is usually true for wills and trusts. But, a lot of states have different acceptable language about health directives or health POAs. I would have that for any state where I lived.

Some banks, credit unions and other financial institutions like their clients to use one of their own forms so no additional legal work on their part is needed when the POA is exercised. That really isn’t necessary and I don’t think I’ve heard of a bank rejecting a POA that was valid elsewhere.

Also, take advantage of setting up transfer on death account, which save work for whoever administers your estate (assuming you have a person, people or entity in mind). I think all states allow them for financial accounts and about half on real property.

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I just set this up a year ago after my sister passed away and there was no way to see her bank account. There wasn’t much in it, but we couldn’t even pay an electric bill without it. I did a transfer on death for my house and my bank set up my bank account as payable on death to my daughter.

We have our Fidelity charitable account as secondary beneficiary of our accounts with Fidelity and Schwab. I haven’t yet found a bank that would allow that on a bank account. Banks all want a real person as beneficiary and some will accept a trust. As a result, we don’t keep much money in the bank but the firm that will handle what we leave will have enough cash to pay the bills.

@jimtoo - Thanks for the helpful information. My husband had named me as his beneficiary or Transfer on death on his financial accounts so they didn’t have to go through probate. I am in the process of doing that for my daughter now.

My current living will with advanced directives names my husband as my health care surrogate but also indicates my daughter for that position if he is not available. However, I plan to get a new one anyway when I do a power of attorney document. I had power of attorney for my husband and realized how important that was when he was too sick to come home during the last six months of his life.

I have been very busy with all the paperwork from my husband’s death and preparing the information for my appointment with the accountant to prepare our 2022 income taxes. At the same time, I want to make sure my daughter is protected if something happens to me.