How to Become Someone's Power of Attorney

Video Transcript

"You've been hearing the term power of attorney recently and you want to know how to become someone's power of attorney. Hello, I'm Robert Todd and I'm here to answer the question, how to become someone's power of attorney. Perhaps the better question is how to give the power of attorney to someone and you need to know that the laws governing what constitutes a power of attorney are going to vary from state to state. But generally speaking, powers of attorney grant someone else the legal right to act for you in either a financial matter or a legal matter. And they can be of a durable power of attorney nature where they basically continue until you revoke them or they are of a limited nature where they have a time certain and it is to do a specific item such as sell shares of stock at a specific stockholders meeting that you're not going to be attending. Or they are of the nature of a springing power of attorney that comes into action when a certain contingency occurs such as you become incapacitated or something of that nature. But you want to be sure and use the right power of attorney form that your state has adopted. So if you are in doubt whatsoever, you may want to consider hiring an attorney to look over the power of attorney that you are contemplating using. I'm Robert Todd and thank you for watching."