The Power of Attorney Problem No One Talks About

MAJOR problem in the Estate-planning space. PLEASE watch this video (We don’t beg often!)

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We have a major problem in Canada right now with Power of Attorney documents not being accepted by financial institutions. Been through it myself. And I’m hearing story after story, complaint after complaint from friends and followers. People are getting very mad at their, say, brokerage firm or bank. “We gave them the proper paperwork, all the documents.

What the heck is the matter with these people?” Careful. I actually understand their hesitance. Let’s look at my dad’s POA documents as an example. They’re legit. He appointed me the POA for property and my sister for personal care. Did it through a lawyer and had it witnessed. Thirty years ago. The lawyer is dead. The witness is dead.

Dad has some dementia. Hmm. What would you do if you were the bank staff? Fraud is rampant. Senior abuse is a major issue. How can the institutions truly verify this document? How do they know it wasn’t revoked? Heck, how do they know I didn’t create it myself? I’m above that… but my sister, I mean, she used to steal my Halloween candy.

Who knows what she is capable of. Seriously, this is an issue. When you think it all through, I’d be more upset if the people I was giving the documents to didn’t give me a bit of a hard time. They weren’t cautious. The system we’re using is somewhat flawed. Over time, I think we’ll move to a national POA registry on the blockchain.

In the meantime though, what can we all do to help all parties here out? To give the receivers of the POAs some comfort? To de-risk things for them. Well, a lawyer certificate attached to the POA can help. It could say something like: “I met with the grantor and confirmed they understand the nature and the consequences of granting this power of attorney.”

A notarized citation is also smart. Often not required by law but very helpful for identity verification and anti-fraud credibility. Attorney and witness contact information pages. That makes things easier, for sure. Multiple witnesses. What about videotaping the signing with audio? That’s actually becoming much more common.

No guarantee it’ll be accepted but it can’t hurt. And a big one: Register the POA with the institutions with the grantor present while he or she is still competent. Trust those of us who have dealt with these challenges here: Do some or all of these things. Help the financial institutions to help you and/or your power of attorneys.

None of this takes much time. A great ROI.