When setting power of attorney, it is important that you have the right person appointed. You may have a situation where the state statute will invalidate a spouse acting on your power of attorney for you, if you neglect to do this during a divorce.

Susan L. Anderson focuses her practice on estate planning, trusts, wealth preservation, charitable planning, and probate; on the administration and litigation fronts. As the former CEO and President of ING National Trust, Susan has a deep view and understanding of a myriad of trusts.

In this CLE class video clip, Susan L. Anderson, Esq. discusses Trusts Law – Setting Power of Attorney During Divorce.

You can watch the complete Trusts Law CLE class here:
Trusts Law CLE

However, you actually may have some people in your ex-spouses family appointed in successive positions. State statutes do not mention those individuals, so you may want to have those individuals taken off. While the statute invalidates your spouse as power of attorney, that doesn’t stop the spouse from going out and using your power of attorney against your will with unknowing recipients of that document.

Banks and insurance companies are not responsible for double checking and making sure that the power of attorney they have been presented is valid. They are often, on the face of the document, protected because it is difficult for them to distinguish validity.

Due to this, banks and insurance companies are requiring newly signed documents every six months or a current letter from your attorney stating that power of attorney as given is still in good standing. It is best to proactively send your banking and insurance institutions a letter revoking legal power of attorney that is in place, thus putting them on notice that it has changed.