A durable power of attorney should be an integral part of any estate plan. While estate planning is considered by most to be a plan to settle your estate upon your death, it is often overlooked as a way to manage your affairs in the event you become incapacitated and rendered unable to do so yourself.

For example, Jim suffers a stroke. His largest asset is an IRA naming his brother as the beneficiary. The brother needs the money from the IRA to pay Jim’s medical expenses. Without a durable power of attorney giving him authority to act for Jim, he will not have access to this IRA resource without a court order.

Or, consider the case of Mary, who became incapacitated as the result of an automobile accident. Her life partner has no right to make medical decisions on her behalf without the durable power of attorney authorizing her to do so.

If you become incapacitated and you haven’t prepared a durable power of attorney for your finances, a court proceeding is necessary to allow your spouse, closest relatives, or companion to exercise some authority over at least some of your financial affairs. If you are married, your spouse retains some authority over property you own together—to pay bills from a joint bank account, for example.

If your relatives go to court to get someone appointed to manage your financial affairs, they must ask a judge to rule that you cannot take care of your own affairs—a public airing of a very private matter. And like any court proceeding, it can be expensive if a lawyer must be hired. When the courts act and appoint a conservator, or guardian of the estate, you lose the right to control your own money and property.

The appointment of a conservator is usually just the beginning of court proceedings. Often the conservator must post a bond—a kind of insurance policy that pays if the conservator steals or misuses property, prepare (or hire a lawyer or accountant to prepare) detailed financial reports and periodically file them with the court, and get court approval for certain transactions, such as selling real estate or making slightly risky investments.

Properly designed durable powers of attorney will solve these problems. When you execute a power of attorney, you give another person legal authority to act on your behalf. This person is called your “attorney-in-fact,” or sometimes referred to as your agent.

The word “durable” plays an important part in the process. If the word “durable” is not used, the power of appointment lapses, or ceases to be effective, when the person who granted the power is incapacitated.

Durable powers of attorney are most often used to give “attorneys-in-fact” power to act on the financial and health affairs of the grantor of the power. While a revocable living trust will often name a successor trustee to act for the beneficiaries of the trust, many assets and situations that need management are not governed by the living trust, such as property held in joint tenancy, or retirement accounts with a named beneficiary.

A durable power of attorney can be drafted so that it goes into effect as soon as you sign it. But you can also specify that the durable power of attorney does not go into effect unless a doctor certifies that you have become incapacitated. This is called a “springing” durable power of attorney. It allows you to keep control over your financial affairs unless and until you become incapacitated.

Single individuals, those with no immediate family nearby, and certainly anyone with property or investment assets should have current durable powers of attorney for financial affairs and health management. A simple will or even a living trust is not enough.