Do I Need a Lawyer to Create a Power of Attorney in NY?
If you want to make sure that your agent will have the legal authority to fully assist you with your legal and financial matters in the event you lose mental capacity, due to illness, accident or old age, it is strongly recommended to seek the assistance of an elder law attorney to prepare your power of attorney. When someone becomes incapacitated, in addition to day-to-day transactions, there are often many long term care issues that surface, which may involve where the principal should reside, how he or she should be cared for, and how payment should be arranged, including asset protection and Medicaid planning. An elder law attorney is familiar with these types of issues and the planning necessary, so he or she will include the authority necessary for the agent to handle these types of transactions. While the statutory power of attorney that you can download online or purchase from a legal stationery store may be sufficient for regular transactions, it will not include many types of authority that may become necessary to protect the principal’s assets, or handle Medicaid planning on the principal’s behalf. Further, the form can be confusing and if not initialed, signed, notarized and witnessed in the right manner, can invalidate the form. These are not issues you would want to find out when you are ready to use it, which will be too late at that point to fix (because the principal will be incapacitated and won’t be able to sign a new power of attorney).