@carolinamom2boys : That’s good conversation to have in the other direction as well. My wife and I know what our respective wishes are, and we have medical directives for each other. [We don’t need POAs since we are each trustees of our lifetime revocable trust.] I have POA and medical directive for my very elderly mother, and I know and will respect her wishes 100%. That she knows that and trusts me speaks to our relationship. It sounds like you have that relationship with your son. Bravo.
@Lindagaf - getting back to your original question, my son took a copy of his POA back with him and the plan is that he will let his roommate or a friend know where it is. Since he’s at a small school, if anything happened to him that required his hospitalization, it’s likely that his roommate and friends would know about it fairly quickly. I prefer that he tell his roommate since a serious accident might include his friends.
Actually, as long as she tells you where in her room she will keep it, you should be fine.
^But if the POA is giving you power, you will be the one that needs it…I think it’s better kept in the hands of the person who actually needs the document.
@AboutTheSame As an occupational therapist , I have seen first hand what happens when families are faced with difficult decisions . Typically reasonable people have difficulty removing their emotions from the decision making. Currently , I work with geriatrics . It is extremely difficult for adult children to agree on what’s best for their parents, especially when faced with supplemental nutrition or placing someone on hospice .
Is the original copy necessary in the digital age? Also, some copying machine can produce copies like the original one? How do people dispute that during emergency care time?
I know my copy had to be notarized and witnessed @coolweather There were very specific guidelines regarding witnesses as well.
I have had no objections when I have emailed a jpg of mom’s POA in order to establish my authority to deal with an issue. Where the original sits is not critical in my experience.
I imagine that the notary’s seal is what is important. Not sure. Like I said, I scanned and saved it so if she needs it she will be able to get it easily. I am inclined to agree that as we, the parents, are the ones with POA it’s probably best that the doc stays with us.
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The Uniform Statutory Power of Attorney form includes a provision that a copy can be relied on by the recipient without any additional requirements of a certified or notarized copy. State laws can differ of course.
When my kid was in the Peace Corps, they recommended that families get a POA so,they could act on the volunteers behalf for decisions that needed to be made stateside on behalf of the volunteer. We did this. And we needed to use it.
In our case, the folks requesting to have a copy of the POA wanted one with the raised notary seal on it. We had to get a certified copy of the POA tomsend, because we only had one copy of the original. This was fine…but if I had it to,do,again, I would get several original signed POAs.
And yes…I kept it with me.
Our issue was a little different. Questions could be asked of us and our kid was not able to be reached.
We also had to complete her income taxes for two years.
My adult unmarried children and I all have reciprocal general and medical POAs. If someone is comatose or even just seriously laid up, this allows the other party to pay bills, do banking, anything that the person would normally take care of themselves. The POAs are all in files in hopes of never needing them. I realize you could pay bills without a POA, but what if you don’t actually have the bill in hand or know the account number? No one will talk to you without a POA.
Definitely, the POA needs to be in the hands of the person who will be acting as “attorney” (the parent in the case of a student).
I was a legal guardian and realized that when my charge turned 18, I was not next of kin, although that is how we both see me. So we had a lawyer draw up both a regular POA and medical POA, hopefully never needing to be used.
In my employment I have been on the accepting end of POAs and anywhere I worked, a copy was just fine. But I can imagine some places/agencies might be stickier. Certain things are exempt, such as voter registration (I think) and Social Security (I think). Looks like the IRS has its own form and special requirements.