Powers of Attorney

At Young & Maslowski, LLC, we will assist you in making sure the right person makes decisions for you when you are unable.

Powers of Attorney are important because they provide you with the peace of mind that your affairs will be managed during your lifetime when you are no longer able to do so yourself. Specifically, Powers of Attorney allow you to personally select someone whom you trust to make decisions regarding your health and finances when you become incapacitated.

At Young & Maslowski, LLC, we will guide and assist you through selecting an appropriate agent and creating Powers of Attorney that meet your specific needs.

Durable Financial Power of Attorney A Durable Power of Attorney is an easy way to arrange to have someone manage your finances should you ever become incapacitated or unable to make a decision for yourself.

Your Durable Power of Attorney can be written either to become effective upon signing or to become effective if you are determined by a physician to be incapacitated. One benefit of drafting your Durable Power of Attorney to be effective immediately is that it would allow your Power of Attorney to handle your finances for you while you are out-of-town.

In most cases, people will give their agent broad power to handle their finances. You are also able to limit the powers granted to your agent.

Health Care Power of Attorney A Health Care Power of Attorney is used to name someone to oversee your health care wishes and make medical decisions for you should you become unable or unwilling to make the decisions on your own. Similar to a Durable Power of Attorney, you are able to select the level of authority granted to your agent.

Some typical powers granted to your agent include:

Admit you to a nursing home or community-based residential facility for a purpose other than recuperative care or respite care
Have a feeding tube withheld or withdrawn
Consent or refuse consent to any medical treatment that affects your physical or mental health
Hire or fire medical personnel
Gain access to medical records and other personal information.

If you become incapacitated without a Health Care Power of Attorney in place, a court proceeding would be needed to appoint someone to make health care decisions on your behalf. Unfortunately, the Courts do not always appoint the person you may want to make these decisions.

Living Will

A Living Will, or Declaration to Physicians, is used to write out what you want in terms of medical care if you are unable to communicate for yourself.

The declarations that are a part of the Living Will are:

The use of a feeding tube when you have a terminal condition
The use of life-sustaining procedures when you are in a vegetative state
The use of a feeding tube when you are in a vegetative state.