Legal professionals know that a comprehensive estate plan goes beyond making a will. Clients also need to consider a power of attorney—naming someone (or possibly more than one person) to act as an agent or attorney-in-fact on their behalf.
There are many moving parts involved in establishing a power of attorney, but the right software can streamline the process and empower lawyers to spend their valuable time providing personalized guidance to their clients instead of worrying about paperwork.
Here, we’ll explore how power of attorney software can help your law firm simplify this process.
Power of attorney software is quite simply any digital tool that trust and estate lawyers use to facilitate power of attorney administration for their clients. It could be a standalone suite of services covering the entire process, from client intake to digitizing documents and scheduling calendar appointments, or a set of power of attorney forms and templates within legal management software.
Power of attorney tools can include:
The power of attorney process is important to lawyers because it’s important to clients. It’s crucial to plan ahead; if you don’t appoint someone to act on your behalf, a court might have to step in and appoint someone for you if you become incapacitated.
It’s also important to review a power of attorney from time to time and update it if necessary. A power of attorney is a key part of a comprehensive life plan, and lawyers who slot it seamlessly into an overall estate plan can present a complete service to clients and gain a competitive advantage in the market. Software can make this easier by recording and organizing client information, scheduling reminders, and facilitating communication.
Like any legal process, a power of attorney involves paperwork, deadlines, and regulations that can vary from state to state. Tackling this manually isn’t only tedious and time consuming; it also carries a risk of human error. Document generation with built-in compliance capabilities helps you ensure compliance while delivering a seamless client experience.
Administering a power of attorney isn’t simply a matter of filling out an online form, collecting a signature, and filing it away. Clients turn to law firms for help because the power of attorney process can be complex, covering different estate planning needs and possibly involving multiple agents. In Canada, for example, the three different types of power of attorney are:
When a client names more than one agent, it has the benefit of providing checks and balances. However, it also risks delaying important decisions, given the time it takes to chase down multiple signatures and approvals. Power of attorney software can help lessen these delays with communication tools that send notifications and reminders to agents and facilitate e-signatures.
Are you a trust and estates lawyer looking to transform how you manage the power of attorney process? Estateably’s cloud-based estate, trust, and guardianship administration solution helps law firms become more productive through automation, task management, instant reporting, and collaboration.
Book a free demo or contact our team to discover how our dedicated solutions can free you from administrative tasks so that you can focus on your clients.
Estateably Inc. © 2024
Estateably Inc. © 2023
