Decode POA

Analyzes durable, springing, limited, general, and healthcare POAs to explain granted authority, flag missing provisions, and assess fitness for your specific purpose. Catches gaps before a bank, hospital, or title company does.

Most people don't read their power of attorney document until the moment they need to use it. By then, it's often too late to fix it. A durable POA that lapses upon incapacity — the exact moment you need it — is worse than useless. A springing POA that requires a physician's certification can take weeks to activate while a parent's assets sit frozen. A general POA that doesn't explicitly include real estate transactions gets rejected by the title company on closing day. These aren't edge cases. They're the norm. Lawyers draft these documents in legalese optimized for courts, not for the adult child trying to pay their mother's nursing home bill on a Tuesday. Online guides offer generic checklists. State bar websites bury the relevant rules. And most families don't discover the gaps until they're already in crisis. Decode POA reads the actual document you have, maps the authority granted against what you actually need to do, flags missing provisions, identifies state-specific risks, and tells you plainly whether the document is fit for purpose — before the moment of truth arrives.

Adult children managing affairs for aging parents, individuals granted POA authority, estate planners without legal counsel on retainer