A lasting power of attorney is a legal document that allows an individual or business to appoint another person to carry out decisions on their behalf. Individuals may use lasting POA when they are unable to deal with their own affairs.
A lasting POA gives you peace of mind by assigning a person to manage your affairs at your difficult times. This may include ensuring your family safety, settling your medical treatment dues, and settling mortgage payments.
You need to remember that you can make lasting POA only when you are mentally capable of making one. This means a requirement for the durable power of attorney drafting in UAE is mental capacity. If you don’t have a power of attorney when you lose your mental capacity, your dear ones have to suffer a lot to take control of your wellbeing and finances. They’d also have to go through courts to carry out your affairs.
What are the Different Types of Lasting POAs?
There are two main kinds of durable or lasting POAs, and they are as follows:
- Financial affairs and property
- Health and welfare
A lasting power of attorney for health and welfare is focused on the personal wellbeing of the principal. It may be to take health decisions or to ensure that your safety in a nursing home.
Financial and property lasting power of attorney focusses on financial and property decisions. For Example paying off mortgage loans, dealing with savings and bank accounts, and settling debts. It may even be deciding sell your house to cover your healthcare costs.
When setting up a lasting power of attorney in UAE, you’ll be able to decide if the agents or persons you are assigning powers to can start their responsibilities immediately or not. A lasting or durable POA may be initiated when you are no longer capable of managing your own finances.
Is there a Need for Lasting POA Drafting in UAE if I’m Married or with Kids?
It’s advisable to have a durable or lasting POA in place even when you have a family. Much like a will, you need to specify the person that you wish to take care of the affairs and finances on your behalf. Even your spouse would not be able to make decisions on your behalf immediately when you are incapacitated.
The only way in guaranteeing they’ll be allowed to carry out your decisions for you is to acquire services for a durable power of attorney drafting in UAE. You can set up both healthcare and property POAs, naming your family members as your attorneys-in-fact or agents.
Take note: Your lasting POA is valid only till your death. After your death, The persons in the registered will determine to the person to manage your properties.
Is it Possible to Have Multiple Persons as an Agent for a Lasting POA?
There is no limit to how many persons you can appoint as your agents in a power of attorney. The people you appoint can act jointly and they can be your friends, relatives, family members, or anyone that you fully trust.
The term, jointly, essentially means your appointment agents are to agree unanimously when making a decision on your behalf, regardless of how small or big the decision’s impact is. If one of the agents can’t act, the other attorneys won’t be able to carry out any decision unless the lasting POA states what to do when it happens.
Manal Elysyed carries with her an extensive experience of 20 years across a full range of notarial and legalization matters. It is this experience that helps her in delivering the right notary solutions to clients from diversified industries.
