If you are considering getting a power of attorney, you should make sure you are appointing the right agent or attorney-in-fact (the person who would be given authority to make or execute decisions for you). One usual issue about power of attorney and appointment of agents is the way the person manages or handles finances. Entrusting all your assets and personal affairs as a principal is like entrusting your life to your attorney-in-fact. Your agent s decisions regarding your estate will have a direct impact on you, considering the broad freedom granted by general powers of attorney. The agent will decide, for example, where your money and investments will go as well as the kind of nursing home where you will stay. This is especially true with people who are gravely injured and cannot make decisions for themselves like for instance when they are under comatose or when they cannot speak, move or are invalid. Power of attorney is one of the ways that you can appoint a representative for you should something happen to you. Anybody can be given the power of attorney, even people who are not lawyers, although most of those who are given such responsibilities are family lawyers of rich people or corporate lawyers of big corporations, whose job entails them to represent the CEOs or the big bosses, which are often required to be in three places at the same time, which is of course, not humanly possible. Laws covering the power of attorney vary in each state. For example, if the attorney-in-fact is the spouse and they get a divorce, the power of attorney is terminated. The court may also rule the document to be invalid, especially if the principal is proven to be incompetent when the document was signed. Seven Steps in Preparing a Power of Attorney Are you going to create a power of attorney (POA) yet you don t know how to start? Various situations call for authorizing another person to take care of your finances, real estate, health care, or other affairs as well as make legal decisions on your behalf.