Power of attorney is the ability to legally sign someone else's name as if they had signed themselves. It can be a powerful tool to have amongst family members in case of emergency or incapacitation.
A couple of months ago, we dropped our daughter off at college in a different state. Along with all of the other changes that this brings about, we saw possible cases that would make things difficult should she get into an accident. She was no longer a minor and as such we no longer had the same kind of access to her medical treatment records.
A power of attorney, in particular a medical power of attorney, and a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) release would allow us to make some of these decisions and to access this information.
Legal forms are out there but can you trust them?
If the name of this blog is any clue, I like a good deal as much as the next guy, and free is a great price. Legal forms and templates for most of what you could want are a Google search and a few clicks away.
It's also true that you often get what you pay for, and that includes free. It would be wrenching to find out the hard way that a power of attorney template that I had downloaded from the web — or any legal form, for that matter! — didn't deliver.
This is why I'll often lean on the side of paying for a well-recommended service to produce a document I need, even though I could get it for free on the Internet.
Student power of attorney with Mama Bear Legal Forms
We happened upon Mama Bear Legal Forms and their Young Adult Power of Attorney package, and we're glad we purchased it.
The package includes the following documents:
- Financial Power of Attorney which allows us to sign on her behalf for most financial transactions and contracts.
- Medical Power of Attorney which allows us to sign on her behalf for medical care, choice of venue, medication, and so forth.
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) release form which allows us access to her medical records in an emergency.
- Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) release form which allows us access to her educational records in an emergency.
What's more, we get two sets of these documents that are good in both our home state and in her college's state. There can be subtle differences between states, and having both states covered removes that concern.
Setting up these power of attorney forms was easy
Creating the forms themselves was quick and easy. There were only a handful of questions to answer in the questionnaire. I didn't time it but I doubt the process took more than 15 minutes.
After we printed out the documents, we took them to our credit union to have them notarized. That took maybe 45 minutes total since my wife and I also got powers of attorney for ourselves notarized. Our daughter's documents only took about 15 minutes' worth of that.
Fairly painless as far as legal documents go!
Mama Bear Legal Forms also has a will package available which we haven't purchased yet. They don't do prenups but if this is where you are in life then Saving Advice has a review of a service that offers these. (Our daughter already gives us the side eye when we talk about anything remotely dealing with marriage haha!)
Good power of attorney protection for a good price
So if you have a college student in your midst then consider if powers of attorney for your student will bring you all peace of mind. Mama Bear Legal Forms brought us that peace of mind.
Even better: Clicking through Mama Bear Legal Forms from here using code MBH20 will get you 20% off your package!
(Photo by Stephen Goldberg on Unsplash)
