Financial Power of Attorney
If you are disabled or incapable of making your decisions, you want to make sure that your finances are taken care of by someone you trust rather than someone the state designates. A Financial Power of Attorney allows you to choose a trusted person (an agent or attorney-in-fact), such as your partner, to handle financial matters for you. The scope of your agent’s authority is determined by the type of financial power of attorney that is prepared. The power can be as limited or as broad as you like. Another important consideration for a financial power of attorney is the specific time when your agent can act. You can have your agent act either immediately or only after you have been deemed unable to manage your affairs. The process for making this determination can be outlined in the document. In addition, consider making the financial power of attorney durable so that your agent’s authority can continue even if you become incapacitated. You have the right to choose who handles financial transactions on your behalf.
Certification of Trust
Once a trust is created, it must be funded. Funding a trust if the process of transferring the assets into the trust, including those held at financial institutions such as banks and brokerage firms. Certification of Trust is a document that summarizes your Trust and outlines pertinent required information for the financial institutions to transfer your accounts to your trust. This document is not used for naming beneficiaries or for planning distribution of assets – it is strictly for “funding” a trust.