Why it is important to have your old Power of Attorney reviewed for compliance with new FL law?

Hello Again Mumbo Jumbo ites!

As we recently turned our clocks to 2013, it is timely to mention the Florida Legislature's decision of just one year ago to rewrite the statutes governing Powers of Attorney in the State of Florida. 

As a bit of background, a Power of Attorney allows another person to make business decisions on your behalf and there are many different types.  In the estate planning world, the preferred type is a Durable Power of Attorney.  The "durable" nature of this Power of Attorney provides that it does not terminate upon one's disability where other Powers of Attorney would in fact terminate upon disability.  Thus, a Durable Power of Attorney, provides you with some protection in the event you are disabled and cannot manage your own business decisions. 

The revisions to the Power of Attorney Statutes had two major impacts which are as follows.

1.  Virtually eliminated the option to provide a "springing" Power of Attorney.  A springing power of attorney allows the power to become effective only upon disability such that it "springs" from the disability and this type of power of attorney is no longer permitted by Florida Statutes.

2.  Required that all the specific powers my be independently authorized by the initials of the party granting the power of attorney, such that the one authorizing the power is aware of the specific powers that he or she is giving away.

While the change in legislation does not invalidate an old Power of Attorney document it does, in my humble opinion, raise a question of whether the old document should be deemed reliable by the powers that be who are most notably banking institutes.  I should point out that most lending institutions have highly paid, well motivated and highly paranoid legal departments.

Anyhoo, the take away friends is that it is expeditious to have your powers of attorney looked at and probably updated to assure that you're covered if something were to happen.

Next time...will review a similar issue re; medical directives in Florida!

Until then...