If your financial power of attorney, sometimes called Durable Power of Attorney, or general power of attorney, was drafted and signed prior to January 2017, then you need to know how the laws changed and how this affects you!

The state of South Carolina changed its power of attorney code and document requirements on January 1, 2017.

These changes are meant to provide stronger protections for the person signing the document from financial exploitation by others (usually their agent – the one they appoint to help them). More importantly, an increasing number of bank and financial institutions were not accepting “general” powers of attorney but assured policy makers that they would accept the newest form when presented unless there was actual evidence of exploitation. In practice, however, this is not actually happening, and most powers of attorney executed prior to January 1, 2017, even though they meet the statutory requirements are not being accepted. What we have learned through this process with our clients is that:

At a minimum, you should be using the new financial power of attorney as recommended under the January 1, 2017, laws.
For asset protection and the desire of future government assistance (like Veterans Benefits or nursing home Medicaid), the standard language is not sufficient for the complex planning involved if and when necessary, thus, enhanced language added to the form is essential. In our forms, we protect our clients by adding very specific language to address the potential for this assistance ever being needed.
Some Banks are still refusing to accept powers of attorneys; thus, we include very specific language in our documents to make it much more likely the financial institutions will accept them.
Some Banks are requiring certain sections of the statutory change to be stated VERBATIM in the power of attorney before accepting them.

If your power of attorney for financial matters is older than January 1, 2017, or if you have a standard form without enhanced asset protection provisions, give us a call! We are providing a special to those that understand the value of getting it right, not just having it done. When you call THIS WEEK or NEXT WEEK and schedule an appointment to have your powers of attorney updated, we will offer you up to 50% off our regular rates.

You have nothing to lose and a whole lot more protection to gain.

CALL 803-980-1199 today!