Many people are wary of signing a power of attorney, since it gives unbridled authority to an agent.
It’s also important to name an alternate in case, if and when the time comes, your child’s first choice is unable or unwilling to serve. Though the parent is usually the best person to put in charge of both medical and legal matters, when relationships are strained, you child might appoint another trusted adult, such as an aunt, uncle or older sibling, rather than the parent, as the agent. Traditionally, this has required a medical opinion. The problem with this approach, known as a springing power, is that someone must decide when an individual has reached that state. The power of attorney may be effective from the moment your child signs it or you can specify that it be activated by a specific event-for instance, if he or she becomes incompetent. These, too, vary by state and can be found online by searching “free power of attorney form.” While the former deals with medical decisions, the latter appoints a trusted family member, friend or adviser as an agent to act on your behalf, if need be, in a variety of financial and legal matters. The next time his son came home for vacation, he had not just a health care proxy, but also a durable power of attorney, ready for him to sign. Not thinking about this before his son went away to school, Franc says, was a case of the cobbler's children going barefoot, since he is a trusts and estates lawyer and routinely handles these matters for clients.
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Up-to-date versions of these forms for each state can be downloaded for free from. (Some states have surrogate decision-making laws that give specific family members the right to make certain medical decisions for others.) In the same document, or a separate one called the living will, you can express your preferences about end-of-life care. And legally, it also automatically gives that agent access to your medical records. This document, also called a health care agent or health care power of attorney, authorizes someone to make medical decisions on your behalf. But the temporary scare to his concerned parents could have been avoided if he had signed a health care proxy before he went off to college. Getting the necessary authority to play that role can be a rite of passage and a learning experience for both parent and child.įortunately, Alex Franc promptly recovered. And much as you hope you've prepared them to take care of themselves, you may still be their fallback for emergencies. Franc rushed to visit him there, only to find that doctors refused to discuss his son’s condition, citing privacy concerns.Īfter what sometimes seems like endless years spent raising a child, their adulthood-and all the rights that go with it-may creep up suddenly. After traveling to Mexico for spring break, Alex developed a severe intestinal bug that landed him in the college infirmary. Franc, a lawyer with Houston Harbaugh in Pittsburgh, realized that two years ago, when his son Alex, then 19, was a sophomore at Penn State. Accidents are the leading cause of death for young adults, and a quarter-million Americans between 18 and 25 are hospitalized with nonlethal injuries each year.īut it doesn’t take something nearly that drastic for parents to need to act on a child’s behalf.