If you are a defense person, you might stay for very long periods of time away from your home. There are times when your spouse and parents too do not know where you are. Should you give a Power of Attorney to do deals when you are away?

Once you give a the power of attorney, the person acting as your agent can take care of your bank accounts, mutual funds, investments, real estate, contracts, or anything else you choose to give them power over. This is helpful when you have urgent business that has to be taken care of in person, and you happen to be far away. You can relax at your place of work, knowing that whatever legal work has to be done will be done at home even in your long absences.

There is a General Power of attorney and a Special Power of attorney. The Gen PoA allows the holder to do a lot of things which you can do, and the Special Power of Attorney is for a special purpose – like say buying /selling a flat. There are some advantages and risks in giving a power of attorney. The positives first:

• Drafting a power of attorney document is inexpensive and a simple way to manage your affairs. The legal fees are not much, and can be done by any lawyer – in fact most of the lawyers should be able to do it.
• You have a person to act on your behalf, and you will know that your affairs will be taken care of.
• Simple and Quick to draft. In fact Google might be able to give you a decent draft, but hey let the Lawyer earn his money.
• It is useful to have one even if you are unwell and unable to manage your own affairs.
• It can last indefinitely, or it can be time bound.
• You are not transferring your ownership with a power of attorney; you’re letting someone work on your behalf.
• You can change the document at any time, change the authority given to the agent, or scrap the power of attorney altogether.
• You can give it to different people for different things. So your wife and father can both be PoA holders for different things.

Let us now look at the disadvantages/risks of giving a PoA

• Works only till your death, it ceases when YOU cannot do certain things – like turning lunatic or insolvent.
• Powers of attorney actions are not supervised by the court.
• Not all third parties will accept a power of attorney as valid. Some banks will not recognize a power of attorney drafted by a
• lawyer.
• Certain organisations will require a power of attorney to be drafted on their unique paperwork and worded accordingly.
• If you agent decides to become untrustworthy, you could spend some sleep, lose property or rights to property.
• Agents have been known to empty bank accounts, sell property,
• Because power of attorney gives people the legal authority to do these things and more, be aware that you will have no legal recourse if someone decides to take advantage of your trust in them.

Whom should you give the Power of Attorney to?

hey: that is another topic….please wait

Note: This article is for information only and is not to be considered legal advice. Please visit a Lawyer before choosing which Power of Attorney is right for your situation, if at all.