In most cases, Schwab’s rules around durable powers of attorney help to protect the principal. However, the same rules can also impede the principal’s agent.
Estate planning is a task which is never useful until it is too late to do it.
Interestingly, being a fiduciary though is not a job description as much as it is descriptive of the kind of job that you do.
Instead of having to nag your spouse to sign paperwork or login online to accomplish these tasks, you can manage all of your family’s finances by setting up a power of attorney.
A reader asks, “As her descendant and agent following the rules as written, it is my understanding that I could gift myself $14,000 each year. But can I really?”
This style of Power of Attorney certainly gets the job done, but there are a few ways that the cookie-cutter POA most frequently fails to meet people’s wishes.