By Shelley Elder, Estate and Probate Lawyer serving the North Atlanta metro area, including Bartow County, Cherokee County, Cobb County, Paulding County

What is a Power of Attorney?  A Power of Attorney is a document (different from the will and needed with the will) in which you designate a person who will handle your financial or medical affairs in the event that you become incapacitated or are absent (such as out of town or out of the country).  Your Power of Attorney becomes effective when signed until you either revoke it or die.

Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care (Health Care Power of Attorney)

There are several types of Power of Attorney.  First, the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care (Also called a Health Care Power of Attorney) is a document that will allow you to accomplish a few things.  First, you will choose a health care agent to make important decisions for you if you are unable to make them for yourself (such as if you are unconscious).  You will also choose a back-up health care agent.  With the Advance Directive, your agent can admit or discharge you from a hospital, skilled nursing facility, hospice or other health care facility, request, consent to, withhold, or withdraw any type of health care, and contract with a health care facility or service, and obligate you to pay for these services.

A Power of Attorney is especially needed if you are divorced (or going to get a divorce) and had this type of Power of Attorney while you were married, but you haven’t had a new document prepared.  Do you want your ex-spouse to make this type of decision for you?  Probably not, so you will want a new one prepared.

The Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care also will allow you to choose treatment preferences in the event you have a terminal condition or if you are in a state of permanent unconsciousness.  This section becomes effective only when you are unable to communicate your preferences.  If you can effectively communicate with your doctor, you will always be able to make a decision that is inconsistent with what is in your Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care - you can personally "override" your advance directive choices.  If you cannot communicate your choices, what you have written in the Power of Attorney will prevail.

The Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care also will allow you to nominate a person to serve as your Legal Guardian in the event a Guardianship is ever needed.  For example, if you get sick and become mentally incompetent, the trusted person that you named in your Power of Attorney will become your Legal Guardian to help care for you.  It is much easier for you to choose your trusted Legal Guardian than for someone to have to petition the court and go through what can be a time-consuming and expensive process to be appointed by the court.

The Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care also addresses decisions that will be made after your death, such as your preference for autopsy, organ donation, body donation, and final disposition of your body.

Even though you will include your wishes in your Power of Attorney, you will still want to discuss the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care with your agent to express your wishes, values and preferences regarding health care.

General Durable Power of Attorney (General Power of Attorney)

A General Durable Power of Attorney is an instrument that will allow you to authorize another person to act as your agent, who is called your attorney-in-fact. Your attorney-in-fact will be permitted to manage your real and personal property in the event that you cannot do so.  This Power of Attorney form is used when you are unable to make decisions, such as when you may be travelling out of state or out of the country, or if you become physically or mentally unable to handle your own affairs.

A General Durable Power of Attorney document can provide extensive powers to the person or organization you will appoint as your agent.  Some examples are banking transactions, purchasing, managing, or selling property or real estate, filing tax returns, purchasing life insurance, entering into contracts, making retirement plan transactions, and handling government benefit matters.  You will also have the power to grant additional powers to your agent with this Power of Attorney document.

A General Durable Power of Attorney is an important document for you to execute because nobody can predict illness or accident or when or whether the document will become necessary in the future.  You will want to execute this Power of Attorney document at a time when you are healthy because once incapacitated, a Power of Attorney may not be executed.  You will be able to specify that the Power of Attorney will not go into effect unless a doctor certifies that you are mentally incapacitated.

Special Power of Attorney

You will use a Special Power of Attorney to allow the trusted person of your choosing to manage a specific situation for you should you be unavailable or unable to do so.  For example, you may execute a Special Power of Attorney so that your sibling can care for your children while you are out of town or in the hospital.  You may choose to execute a Special Power of Attorney if you have to be at an important business meeting or seminar, and you want your spouse to be authorized to sign on your behalf at a real estate closing.  The Special Power of Attorney is used for specific situations and for a specific period of time.

Additional Power of Attorney information:

•    GA State Bar:  www.gabar.org/sections/section_web_pages/fiduciary_law/living_wills_and_durable_powers_of_attorney_for_health_care/

Shelley Elder of Elder Law Firm meets with clients in the North Atlanta metro area, including Acworth, Cartersville, Dallas, Emerson, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs, Smyrna, Woodstock.