Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
THE ELROD FIRM
Fayetteville 479.750.1101 Bentonville 479.268.5678 Fort Smith 479.434.3531
“My spouse and I own everything jointly. Why would we need Financial Power of Attorney documents?” Answer:
There are three important reasons why even married couples need power of attorney documents, even when all assets and property owned jointly. First, an IRA is an Individual Retirement Account. Your spouse is not a joint owner of your IRA and has no authority to manage that account. If your spouse ever needed to withdraw funds from your IRA and you were unable to sign, your spouse would have to seek a court-ordered guardianship to obtain the authority act. Second, in order to transfer or sell real property in Arkansas, all owners must sign the deed. If you and your spouse own your home together, both of your signatures would be required to transfer or sell your home. If one of you is incapacitated and didn’t previously sign power of attorney documents, then a guardianship is the only way for your spouse to have the authority to sign for you. Third, events may occur where both you and your spouse are unable to handle your affairs. It is important to name an agent and at least one successor agent in your power of attorney for this reason. Then, if something happens to the person you appointed as your agent, the successor agent can step in and handle your affairs for you. Financial power of attorney documents are a vital tool to help our clients avoid going to court if at all possible and to prepare for the most simple and efficient management of financial affairs. To learn more, and better yet to set up a no charge strategy session to talk about this, visit our website at ElrodFirm.com.