Many of the day to day domestic responsibilities that need to be handled on our behalf during incapacity involve personal care issues that are typically unrelated to what is usually provided for in our durable power of attorney to manage financial and property affairs.

By planning ahead we can authorize a trusted agent to oversee our personal care during incapacity. Let’s examine the power of attorney for personal care.

“Personal care” encompasses a wide range of domestic and personal issues, including providing for our in-home care, maintaining our customary standard of living, taking care of our home and personal property, ensuring our transportation needs are met, taking care of our pets, picking up our mail, providing for our living arrangements – such as our placement into a nursing home or assisted living center – and hiring, compensating, and discharging our household and health care employees and providers.

Personal care issues involve transactions that impact our quality of life, while managing our assets affect the ability to pay for these transactions.

Most durable powers of attorney, however, are rarely drafted to deal with our personal care issues. Powers of attorney are typically drafted to address other important issues, such as our banking, government benefits, taxes, real property and investments.

Personal care issues – discussed above – are not expressly addressed in the typical durable power of attorney.

Granting the authority to make personal care decisions can be incorporated either into a broader durable power of attorney for finances or into an advanced health care, wherever more relevant.

Better yet, the authority can be placed into a separate standalone power of attorney for personal care

decisions. That way, each document can be used in the most appropriate context.

Banks, for example, will not be interested in the personal care provisions when examining a durable power of attorney for finances.

If personal care authority is incorporated into the broader durable power of attorney and advanced health care directives, then the same agent will have access to person’s financial resources necessary to pay for their personal care transactions.

This approach works well for attorney drafted durable powers of attorney, but for not the simple statutory power of attorney.

When using California’s simple one-page statutory power of attorney (and not a customized broadly drafted power of attorney), one should also consider a separate power of attorney for personal care.

The same persons can be named to act as agent under both powers of attorney. The durable power

of attorney for finances should expressly require the financial agent to pay for all transactions entered into by the agent for personal care decisions. The personal care agent must rely upon the durable power agent to pay for the personal care.

Finally, when different persons are named as agent under the advance health care directive than those who are named as agent under the power of attorney for personal care, the funeral, burial, or cremation arrangements should be left to the advance health care agent.

California law gives the health care agent priority over all other persons in regards to such arrangements.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235. Visit his Web site at www.dennisfordhamlaw.com.

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