CO-POAS
What is a CO-POA and what can and cannot be done as a CO-POA?
A Power of Attorney is somebody that you designate to make either healthcare or financial decisions for you in the event you are unable to make those decisions for yourself.
Example:
If you designate someone as your financial power of attorney, then he or she can go to the bank and be able to write checks and do all the financial things that you could do on your behalf.
If you designated someone as your healthcare Power of Attorney, then he or she could make healthcare decisions for you.
What happens if there are two Power of Attorneys or Co-Power of Attorneys? Does one have a superior right over the other?
Typically, we at Littlejohn Law recommend against the Co-Power of Attorneys because we don't want two people fighting over who gets to act or contradicting each other in terms of their actions. We recommend that you get a Power of Attorney and then an alternate Power of Attorney.
If the one power of attorney acts; great. When that Power of Attorney can no longer perform their duties, then we would have the alternate Power of Attorney; act. Having two Power of Attorneys in our opinion isn't the best when they have co-authority to act at the same time.
If there are two Power of Attorneys, can one sell a property over the other?
The answer is no. If you have two Power of Attorney, then both would have to agree to sell and transfer property. If they both couldn't agree, then the probate court may designate a time to sell the property.
But keep in mind, when we have Co-Power of Attorneys, we are not dealing with after death, we are dealing with during life. It gets a little tricky, but the probate court may be involved anyway to resolve the issue.
The better thing to do:
Designate two separate people as Power of Attorney. One person is the initial financial Power of Attorney and another person as the alternate financial Power of Attorney. This would be the same for health care Power of Attorney. You want an initial agent and an alternate agent.
Need help with handling your estate? Have questions on how to select a Power Of Attorney for your estate? Littlejohn Law can help with any questions and concerns. Call 740-346-2899 and someone from our caring staff will help you.
Littlejohn Law, LLC
The Real Estate and Probate Law Firm
352 Main Street
Wintersville, OH 43953
www.littlejohnlawllc.com
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“Remember, where there's a Will, there's a way, and where there's no Will, then there's probate”
