UPDATE YOUR FLORIDA POWER OF ATTORNEY AND HEALTH CARE DESIGNATIONS REGULARLY

♠ Posted by Marc J. Soss in estate plan,estate planning,florida estate planning,florida probate attorney,florida probate lawyer,Revocable Trust,Sarasota attorney,Special Needs Trust at Thursday, August 13, 2015

Most individuals have their estate planning documents prepared and then put them away on a shelf. During that time period the laws pertaining to them can change many times. As a result, it is very important to review your Florida Health Care Surrogate and Powers of Attorney at least every three (3) years. 

Your Health Care Surrogate appoints a trusted person to make medical decisions on your behalf in the event an illness or injury renders you unconscious or otherwise incapacitated. Your Power of Attorney appoints an individual to make financial decisions or execute transactions on your behalf. It is important to review these documents to make sure that the individual you previously entrusted to handle affairs on your behalf can still be trusted, they are still around and involved in your life, or they may be deceased. 

Even if nothing has changed since you signed your Florida Health Care Surrogate and Powers of Attorney, it’s a good idea to sign new documents every few years. Because of liability concerns, some financial institutions and health care providers may be reluctant to honor powers of attorney that are more than a few years old.