We recommend that everyone have a Power of Attorney, which is a legal instrument that grants authority to a trusted person who will make legal decisions on your behalf when you are unable to do so. Technically speaking, this person is your “attorney-in-fact.” However, because most people refer to this person as “Power of Attorney,” we will use the term POA here.

Choosing a POA is something you should do very carefully. For married people, granting your spouse POA usually makes sense. For elderly widows or widowers, it is usually beneficial to appoint an adult son or daughter who lives close enough to take care of your business affairs. We often recommend that people have more than one POA. One example of where having an additional POA can make a difference is a situation in which a married couple is involved in a serious accident. If both are incapacitated, then the additional POA can step up.

An “advance directive” is a legal document by which one person authorizes another to make medical decisions on his or her behalf. As people age, their ability to do so is often diminished while the level of care that they require usually increases. Although healthcare providers generally defer to the wishes of the family regarding treatment of a loved one, an advance directive is the best approach to medical decision-making for those with diminished mental capacity.

Most Power of Attorney documents include language that allows the POA to make medical decisions. It is a good practice, however, to have a document that specifically addresses medical decision-making. We recommend the execution of a Designation of Healthcare Surrogate, which functions as a Power of Attorney that is limited to medical decisions. A third type of advance directive, and the one most people are familiar with, is the Living Will. Most Living Wills have limited applicability in that they do not come into effect until the person has a “terminal condition.” That seems clear enough at first glance, but in practice it is sometimes rather difficult to utilize because it what constitutes a “terminal condition” may differ from one healthcare provider to another.