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An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) allows you to appoint a person to act on your behalf with respect to all your financial matters if you become mentally incapacitated or for some other reason (for example, if you are out of the country and need to have someone act on your behalf to get something done while you are away – i.e. completing a sale of your house). An EPA is “springing” in that it does not come into effect except on a condition which you specify. It is also “enduring”, in that it does not come to an end if you become mentally incapacitated.
An EPA is also a very important document and should be done for the following reasons:
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PEACE OF MIND - an EPA makes the process easier to deal with your financial matters in a number of circumstances. You get to pick what these circumstances are. Typically, though, you would allow it to come into effect if you are mentally incapacitated (i.e. in a coma), out of the country or for some other limited reason.
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JOINT ASSETS / DEAL WITH SURPRISES – just because things are jointly held does not mean that you will be taken care of if you become mentally incapacitated. Having an EPA in place ensures that these assets will be taken care of in these circumstances with little difficulty. In addition, many people are surprised to learn that certain items cannot be dealt with by another person without your consent – for example, your bills may not be in joint names, and thus, cannot be dealt with by your spouse without your permission. An EPA allows you to deal with the situation where your bills are not in joint names and you need someone to act on your behalf.
An EPA is a very important and powerful document. Accordingly, you should be very careful who you name as your “attorney”, and you should consider restricting your attorney’s powers if need be.
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