Who Needs a Property Power of Attorney?
Every American over the age of 18 needs a Property Power of Attorney.
Powers of Attorney are documents that allow one person (the “principal”) to grant another person (the “agent” or “attorney-in-fact”) the authority to make decisions and act on the principal’s behalf regarding assets and accounts.
The two types of powers of attorney McKarcher Law recommends for all clients are a Durable Power of Attorney (commonly referred to as a “Property Power of Attorney”) and a Health Care Power of Attorney.
In each document, clients will nominate agents to assist with financial and healthcare decisionmaking should they become incapacitated or otherwise unable to make these decisions on their own.
Many people do not know they should have a property power of attorney long before they retire or have children. Parents of college students, for example, can be surprised at how difficult managing their adult child’s affairs might be if the child is injured, or traveling overseas, without having a property power of attorney in effect.
Author Bio
Joshua McKarcher, Estate Planning Attorney
Joshua McKarcher is the founder of McKarcher Law PLLC in Clarkston, where he practices estate planning and administration for families in the Lewis-Clark Valley and throughout Washington and Idaho. He handles the cross-border planning that families with property or relatives in both states need.
He earned his law degree from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., graduating in the top 2% of his class, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as Managing Editor of The George Washington Law Review.
He began his career at Covington & Burling LLP, handling complex corporate bankruptcy and insurance insolvency matters. He argued and won before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, where the court ruled unanimously in his clients’ favor, and he won unanimous opinions twice before the Idaho Supreme Court, which overruled one of its precedents at his suggestion during oral argument.
That experience, spent untangling estates and businesses after something has gone wrong, is what shapes his work today: building estate plans that identify and minimize the risk of disputes, keep families out of probate, reduce estate and income taxes, and protect what people leave behind.
537 6th Street, Clarkston,
WA 99403
