In case you get sick or you go out of the country and there would be important errands or transactions to be done, you could be sure someone would appropriately takeover to make sure everything is in place. 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). On the downside Remember that in giving a power of attorney to someone, you are basically telling people who read the document or the contract that you are giving the agent full rights to sign for you and agree or refuse something on your behalf. If the agent turns out to be corrupt, then any transactions that he or she handles is at risk for fraud. In general, the goal for creating a POA is to protect your interests and manage your estates when you have reached a point when you can no longer do them on your own. Convenience is one of the advantages of having a power-of-attorney document. Take this scenario as an example: you are selling a property and in a few weeks, you are going to be out of the state for a business purpose. This type of power of attorney would be valid unless specified by the document, the principal dies or revokes the document, or the document specifies that it would end upon the event when the principal gets incapacitated or disabled. Specific power of attorney If the attorney-in-fact is only granted authority over specific transactions like collecting debts, buying and selling property, then it is referred to as the specific power of attorney. Who will be at hand to take care of our business dealings and other personal issues? Can power of attorney fix things? The lack of an appointed person to take care of the legal matters when one is dying often becomes a problem because no one anticipates this happening. And who can blame them? Nobody would want to go morbid and prepare for something like dying from an illness. The Health Care power of attorney is one that allows a grantee of the document to decide on your health care service should the principal be deemed incapable of making a decision. This is very sensitive because the grantee will have the power to allow or disallow health care and will even be able to decide if hospitals will pull the plug in case the principal falls into a coma.