Redmond Office Law Blog

When choosing someone to serve as your durable power of attorney or financial agent, you should evaluate a variety of issues. You should establish if that person has any prior financial problems or if that person has a criminal record. You should determine if that individual currently manages his or her own finances. Too often, individuals do not have family members to turn to serve as their power of attorney. In many instances, they turn to a long term friend or even a neighbor. In a recent case in New York a 90 year old woman designated a long time neighbor to serve as her power of attorney. He had been her neighbor since 1978 and she had known him for a long time. When the women died, her cousin’s determined that her power of attorney had embezzled money from her over the course of several years. In fact, they not only learned that he had embezzled from her, but that he had been charged with embezzlement in previous years and had served four months in jail for theft. When choosing a durable power of attorney that is not a close family member that you can trust, you should consider naming two agents so that there is a checks and balances or if you are at an age where you are not managing your finances any longer, perhaps a durable power of attorney is not the route to go. At that point, you may want to consider designating an institution to serve as a corporate Trustee and most of these financial institutions are regulated and there are several people acting on your behalf. This might be the necessary checks and balances that you may need.