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Misappropriation of an elderly person's assets by someone legally authorized to oversee them may now be a lot tougher to pull off in the State of New York. New legislation that went into effect Sept. 1 - in the form of a radically changed power-of-attorney (POA) document - couldn't have come at a better time. "Financial abuse is one of the fastest growing areas of elder abuse," says Andrea Lowenthal, an elder-law and estate-planning attorney in New York. "Older people are a growing segment of society and are among the most vulnerable, often because of their...
...granted the rights associated with a POA was pretty uncomplicated under the old document. Only one signature was required - that of the principal assigning POA to the agent. In some cases, the agent - usually an offspring - didn't even know he or she had been named in the document until the principal became unable to take care of day-to-day financial affairs. Such secrecy generally led to confusion down the road, with the appointee often woefully ignorant of the principal's state of affairs. In other instances, a health-care aide or housekeeper with ulterior motives might procure...
...attorney has teeth," says Ronald Fatoullah, an elder-law and estate-planning attorney in New York. One safeguard is a multiplicity of signatures. Now both the principal and the agent must sign the POA, and each signature must be notarized. "This is a big change," he says. "The document specifically states that when you accept the authority to act as agent, you create a special fiduciary relationship with the principal that imposes legal responsibilities until you resign or the power of attorney is terminated." (Read "The Real Issues of End-of-Life Care...
According to a financial document obtained by The Crimson, the campaign only raised enough funds to cover the operating expenses for the summer—totaling...
...what happens now? Detractors will probably continue to hammer at the document even as it's readied for the Sex and Relationships Education Conference starting Sept. 7 in Birmingham, England. The guidelines will then be presented to the U.N. in New York City sometime in October, at which point governments and education officials can either act on or ignore them as they wish. There's a chance that, in the U.S., UNESCO's recommendations will be drowned out by the knee-jerk outrage of conservative pundits. But at least the guidelines can undergo sober and thoughtful examination in more open...