Legal-Ease: Financial powers of attorney help your parents or your children

As our parents get older, or as our children become adults and start navigating life on their own, there may come a time when someone needs a little help managing finances. Maybe it’s Mom who is having trouble keeping up with bills, or it’s Dad who is spending time in the hospital, or even your college-aged child who is away at school and needs someone to handle a financial matter back home. Whatever the situation, having a financial power of attorney in place can make life easier. A financial power of attorney is a legal document that allows one person, called “the principal,” to give another person, called “the agent,” authority to handle certain financial matters on their behalf. Depending on how the document is written, that authority can include paying bills, managing bank accounts, handling insurance matters, signing tax documents, dealing with real estate and taking care of other financial responsibilities. One of the most common situations where a financial power of attorney co