How To Write A Medical Power Of Attorney
One of the challenges of planning for retirement is that it is difficult to predict how healthy you will be a certain number of years in the future. It is hard to know whether to imagine yourself using the proceeds from the sale of your empty nest to buy a tiny house which will serve as your home base between adventures or to rent a couple’s apartment in an assisted living facility. Saving money to pay for your future healthcare needs is not the hardest question. You must also think about trusting someone enough to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become too ill to speak for yourself. You might even consider a medical power of attorney the most important document in your estate plan, even though it has nothing to do with inheritance. For help writing a medical power of attorney and other estate planning documents, contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.
What Is a Medical Power of Attorney, and Why Do You Need One?
A medical power of attorney (POA) is also known as a healthcare surrogate, health care proxy, or medical advance directive. Just as a financial POA gives another person the right to authorize financial transactions on your behalf, a medical POA gives another person the right to consent to medical treatment on your behalf. In a financial POA, the person you authorize is called your agent, but in a healthcare POA, the person you authorize is called your surrogate.
You need a healthcare POA because, no matter how healthy you are now, there may be a time when you are too ill to express your own wishes to healthcare providers. If you do not indicate in writing who has the final decision about, for example, whether you should undergo additional chemotherapy for cancer when it has reached an advanced stage, the doctors will ask your close relatives, and they may disagree with each other. Your children may hold grudges against each other for years because of the circumstances surrounding your final illness. Therefore, the healthcare POA should indicate not only what your wishes about medical treatment are but also who has the right to express them.
How to Make a Medical Power of Attorney Legally Valid
You should write your medical POA now, when there is no doubt as to whether you are healthy enough to know what you want. To make your medical POA legally valid, you must sign it in the presence of two witnesses, who must also sign it. The witnesses must be adults whom the court has not declared legally incompetent to make decisions. At least one of the witnesses must be someone other than the surrogate named in the medical POA. Unlike a financial POA, a medical POA does not require a notary’s seal.
Contact David Toback About Preventing Healthcare-Related Disputes
A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you write a medical power of attorney and formalize your plans about healthcare and long-term care. Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.
Source:
freewill.com/learn/guide-to-making-a-florida-power-of-attorney#:~:text=Florida%20power%20of%20attorney%20requirements,-To%20make%20a&text=Be%20%E2%80%9Cof%20sound%20mind%2C%E2%80%9D,POAs%20created%20in%20another%20state.
