This is another excuse for not doing anything.  Accepting this reason is fraught with danger.

A woman went to her attorney to have a durable power of attorney and a health proxy drawn up.  This was a step in the right direction and I applaud her efforts.  She showed the documents to her daughter who then became very upset.  Her mother named both her daughter and her son as co-agents.

That was bad enough considering the son lived on the west coast and the daughter on the east coast.  What made this arrangement especially bad was that the mother required that both would have to put their original signatures on any hospital consent form.  What if there was an emergency and a decision had to be made now?  How could they speak for their mother?

The daughter went to the attorney who drew up the documents and asked why he did so.  He said, “That’s what your mother wanted.”  The attorney the mother went to was her real estate lawyer.

If your parents tell you this you need to see all the documents for yourself.  You need to see if they are signed or notarized as required by law.  You need to see if you are mentioned and in what way.

In our case, my father-in-law’s second wife had him revoke his living trust he made up years before.  She had him draw up a new will which favored her children.  He never told us that he had done so.  We found out only after she suddenly died and there was a reading of the will in her attorney’s office.

As a result of that change, we are now engaged in a lawsuit that could cost us $216,000.All because we did not ask to see his documents.