A few months ago while working on my death prep series (yeah, it’s as morbid as it sounds), I mentioned that one of the items you need is a power of attorney.

Power of attorney is a document that allows someone else to make decisions and essentially act as you. There are actually two kinds of power of attorney and in that first post, we focused on the durable kind. A durable power of attorney will continue to be valid even if you become physically and mentally incapacitated.

Something to consider as a performer or technician though is what to do with all your bills and any legal issues that arise while you’re on tour. I mean, I used to disappear to the middle of the ocean for months at a time and my address would change every few months – that was a bit too much to try to keep up with, so all of my mail continued to go to my parents house.

During that time I:

• Received several small checks – rebates, dividends, last paychecks from previous jobs – all of which I really wanted deposited. Especially the ones that become void after 90 days.
• I may or may not have a run a red light and gotten a ticket… or two… in the mail.
• Received all sorts of tax papers.
• Had a miserable time trying to resolve a credit card fraud charge while in Europe (and a different city of Europe everyday – using $10 phone cards that lasted about 8 minutes each).

If I had been a little smarter, I could’ve set up my Mom with power of attorney. I’m not saying she may or may not have illegally forged my signature a few times, but we really could’ve streamlined this process and made life a lot easier (and legal) by taking 10 minutes, filling out a free form, stopping by a bank to get it notarized, and declaring her my power of attorney.

I’m lucky. I have an excellent relationship with my parents and even my brother and would feel confident letting any of them have power of attorney over my affairs while I’m traveling.

However, you do not have to be related to the person who has power of attorney – if you have a trustworthy best friend, boyfriend of even longtime neighbor, if you feel comfortable handing over control of your finances to them, you can declare them as your attorney-in-fact (that’s the title of the person who has the power of attorney). Just remember, you are giving them access to your bank accounts and assets and decision making power regarding them.

If you’re concerned about someone trying something fishy with your power of attorney – A. Don’t pick that person. B. Keep in mind that this is not a durable power of attorney, should anything occur to incapacitate you, the power of attorney you currently have set up would become null and void.

You can also pick an end date on the power of attorney paperwork to just cover how long your tour is or however long you will be away.

So, wondering how to fill out power of attorney paperwork? The Law Depot has some great, basic legal forms you can fill out free of charge. It makes it very simple. You can fill out the forms based on their prompts and then print them out. If your state requires any additional information or that the form be notarized, a box will pop up at the end and let you know what you need to do.

Have any of you used a power of attorney before?