Taxation & Estate Planning

Fiduciaries and Power of Attorney

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

Last Friday I handled a real estate deal -- my client (an estate) sold the decedent's house. The administrator lives out of state and couldn't attend, so I (at the administrator's request) prepared a power of attorney in favor of myself. This is typically done when one/both sellers can't be at the closing, but note that there's an additional wrinkle when a fiduciary is involved. The title company and I had to make sure that my duties as agent didn't amount to a my acting in the administrator's place AS administrator (making important estate decisions and the like). I drafted the power of attorney with specificity, allowing myself only the power to fulfill ministerial functions (really, just signing the closing docs). As a result, the POA was accepted by the title company, and the closing went off without a hitch. The only additional cost to the client was the $54 fee to record the POA (far cheaper than a plane ticket!).

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on January 12, 2009 (boomark / email).