Powers of attorney are often drafted differently by different professionals. In our office, we draft our powers of attorney to be effective immediately so that the principal is authorizing the power to be used by their agent now. However, we do not have the agent sign the acknowledgment pages, acknowledging that they are going to act in the best interest of the principal and not steal from the principal and not comingle assets of the principal, and only have them do that at the time when they need to act.

At Bellomo & Associates, we have a document signed by the principal, telling our firm only to give out the originals and to only have the agent sign the acknowledgment when and if the agent actually needs to use them, which would only occur if the principal instructs our firm to give the documents to the agent, or the principal is incapacitated. Yes, we do potentially take on liability because it is up to us to ensure that the agent has not received the documents before they are supposed to, but this is the mechanism that protects that the principle that the agent will not have the documents prior to when they actually need them.

Over 20 years of practice I have found that agents always want to do the right thing for the principal and always want to be there for the person that they are acting for. In the cases that I have found that an agent has taken advantage of their power, it almost is always a situation of the agent becoming desperate for one reason or another, and I have always said “desperate people do desperate things”. It is mainly for this reason that we keep the originals of the documents protected in our office so that the agents do not have them to be subjected to the whims of a desperate situation.

In the event that the agents need or want to use the documents, they will have to sign the acknowledgment pagers prior to using the document. We often receive calls from agents wanting to know why they did not sign the acknowledgements yet, and our answer is because you do not need to act on behalf of the principal yet because he or she is still able and willing to do it themselves.

While there is certainly no perfect answer to the best way to handle this situation, we believe that our solution provides the most effective way to get the document in place, but in such a way that it’s still protected as much as possible until it needs to be used.

It is important that you receive advice from a professional about the best way for you and your family to execute into a power of attorney and whether or not the agent should sign the acknowledgments now or only when and if they need to use them.

If you are looking for advice in regards to powers of attorney, please call our office at 717-845-5390 or click the link here and we will contact you.