What Is a Durable Power of Attorney?

Video Transcript

"A lot of times people will come in to our office, and what to get something that they refer to , as an enduring power of attorney. The actual technical term, is a durable power of attorney. A power of attorney, a financial power of attorney, is designed, it's a permission slip, that you can give to your family or friends, some loved one, and it's a permission slip that allows them to manage your assets, if you can't. To write a check on your behalf, maybe to tell your financial adviser, how to have your affairs structured, your stocks and bonds, and things like that. It allows somebody, to again, take care of you financially, if you're unable to. What makes a power of attorney durable, or enduring, is that it still allows the person you've picked to do that, after you become incapacitated. Powers of attorney in the old days, would become ineffective, when the person who had given the power of attorney, became incapacitated. Now, they're durable, which means, that if I give my wife my power of attorney, and I have a car wreck tonight, with a head injury. She still has the power I've given her, under that power of attorney, to write a check on my behalf, maybe to sell some real estate on my behalf, maybe to do whatever she needs to on my behalf, with my money, without getting a judge involved, or without getting lawyers involved, and a real key to successful estate planning, is to stay out of court, and frankly, to stay away from lawyers as long as you can."