With illness quite prevalent among family and friends, we find ourselves without anyone to handle our affairs in the event I am unable to.
Under these circumstances, what is recommended? Do we just sign powers of attorney appointing our attorney as trustee? Or are their organizations - either private or public - that can handle this? Worry about no one overseeing our affairs.
Even though illness exists at this time, it may not in the future, so I would provide for that by naming family and friends with your attorney as a contingent proxy under a POA or DPOA.
I wouldn't consider an organization b/c an attorney knows more about law than an organization (other than a bar association, and I don't think any associations would even consider that role).
In addition, if your attorney is with a firm, the documents could provide that the attorney may enlist assistance of other attorneys in the firm. That offers you a better selection of practice areas for management of your affairs than you might find in an organization.
In addition, attorneys are held to established standards of performance, while an organization might not be.
This way you haven't ruled out family or friends, but have a backup arrangement in place.
GardenArtist. Thanks for your comments. Afraid we've run out of family and friends to appoint due to everyone coping with problems of illness. Agree with your comments but thought I'd pick on my nephew, who's dealing with a sick child, and ask him to be contingent.
We don't want to burden our loved ones so we have a certified elder law attorney as our secondary Trustee and back up DPOA and HCPOA with stipulations about how and when they are to step in. We have a back up fiduciary to be a check and balance.
Be sure and put it in all your papers when someone can take over and have an annual audit done by a third party to ensure that you are being taken care of honestly.
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I wouldn't consider an organization b/c an attorney knows more about law than an organization (other than a bar association, and I don't think any associations would even consider that role).
In addition, if your attorney is with a firm, the documents could provide that the attorney may enlist assistance of other attorneys in the firm. That offers you a better selection of practice areas for management of your affairs than you might find in an organization.
In addition, attorneys are held to established standards of performance, while an organization might not be.
This way you haven't ruled out family or friends, but have a backup arrangement in place.
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Be sure and put it in all your papers when someone can take over and have an annual audit done by a third party to ensure that you are being taken care of honestly.