Making the Right Healthcare Decisions on Behalf of Aging Adults

As your loved ones begin to age, mental and physical states may slowly start declining. This decline can lead to mismanagement of finances, loss of real estate or business assets, difficulty maintaining medical care, and the inability to oversee legal affairs. To prevent this from happening to your loved ones, you’ll want to create life care plans that minimize the risk of abuse and maintain their overall health and vitality.

When creating life care plans, you’ll want to think about your loved one’s assets and how you, or they, plan to manage them. Assets typically fall under medical, financial, real estate, or legal. Once you’ve identified the assets you want to help them protect, you’ll then want to help them start the process of obtaining a power of attorney (POA) to help them maintain these assets.

A POA is a legal document that appoints a trusted person to act and manage your loved one’s assets on their behalf if they are unable to do so. Your loved one, the person creating the POA, is called the “principal”. The person selected to make decisions is called an “agent”. So, let’s dive into the types of POAs and how they can help you and your loved one maintain care and support.

Knowing When to Appoint a Power of Attorney

Don’t wait until a situation arises to appoint a POA. If you choose to wait until after an incident occurs, then you, a friend, or a family member may have to go to court and file for temporary guardianship if your loved one is unable to decide for themselves. Generally, this process can be lengthy, expensive, and delay the care and treatment your loved one needs.

Finding the Right Power of Attorney

When seeking authorized POAs, most people consult a lawyer to walk them through the legal process. Lawyers can help identify valid POAs and provide guidance on avoiding POA abuse. Given that POAs are granted control over various assets, the risk of fraud and abuse is high. Hiring a lawyer to vet POA candidates and legal documents can help in the long run. However, if hiring a lawyer isn't financially achievable, these free legal aid programs can assist. This list offers guidance on POA types and their functions:

• General Power of Attorney

  A general power of attorney typically has considerable power over one’s affairs. They are authorized to act on your loved one’s behalf in all situations allowed by local law, although there are still some things POAs can't do. Once a contract is executed for a general POA, it becomes effective immediately, and legal powers can be exercised right away. This can be useful when using a POA for business or financial purposes.

• Medical Power of Attorney

  Medical POAs have the authority to make healthcare decisions on one’s behalf. This is a special or limited privilege POA because health-related decisions can only be made in accordance with what the principal has documented. Unlike general POAs, medical POAs have flexible start and end dates. These are a few decisions medical POA's can make:

• Financial Power of Attorney

  A financial POA is someone appointed to oversee one’s finances when they are not mentally able to do so. This is another special or limited privilege POA. Similar to a medical POA, a financial POA has authority over specific decisions related to your loved one’s financial assets. This protects their best interests as the primary benefactor. Here's what a financial POA can and can't do:

Implementing a Power of Attorney

When you’ve selected a POA and are ready to help your loved one draft a POA document, there are plenty of free online services to use that will create the document for you. After the document is created and approved by your state’s government, keep it in a safe, secure place that's easily accessible.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, the principal has the final say in any decision, regardless of the agent’s input. However, if the principal is intellectually incapable of making their own decisions, then a medical practitioner must deem the principal incapable of making sound decisions before the POA can override the principal’s decision.

Keep in mind that when the principal dies, the POA dies with them, at which point the Executor of the Estate becomes the primary decision maker.