Often clients ask to appoint more than one person to act as their attorneys when making a Power of Attorney. This can cause significant problems.
There are two ways to appoint more than one person to act as your attorney. One is to state that they are required to both act together and one cannot act alone. The other is to say that either one can act alone.
The problem with requiring them both to act together is that this can be very cumbersome. Every cheque written to pay a bill needs to be signed by both attorneys and often a bank will not allow online banking for more than one person.
The problem with allowing two attorneys to act independently is that one may not know what the other is doing and accounts can easily be overdrawn or bills can be missed or paid twice.
Because of this it is preferable to appoint one person to act as your attorney and appoint the second person as a backup or an alternate attorney who can act if the first personal is unable or unwilling to act.
Deborah A. Todd
