How To Create A Power Of Attorney

MyPowerOfAttorney™- Establish a Durable Power Of Attorney

Why do you need a Power of Attorney?  What if you were in a coma, or otherwise incapacitated such that you were unable to communicate?  Or struck with a disease or other tragedy which affected your mind?  Who should control your finances, or your assets?  The MyPowerOfAttorney™ service here at LegalWills.co.za ensures that your wishes in these and other unexpected circumstances are heard, understood, and carried out to your specifications.

We have removed the obstacles to writing a Power of Attorney.  It is convenient, low cost, and simple.  The MyPowerOfAttorney™ service steps you through a series of questions in a "wizard" format.  It will ask you about your wishes regarding who should act on your behalf for legal, financial or business matters.  All questions are written in plain language, so you don't have to be a legal expert to create your own Power of Attorney.  You simply answer the questions about your wishes and we automatically and instantly format a document that forms the basis of a legal Power of Attorney, custom-made for your local jurisdiction.  If you live in Canada, this document can then be printed and signed in front of witnesses to become a legally binding document.  There is also plenty of supplementary information to help answer all of your questions.

There are actually a few different types of Power of Attorney:

A "General Power of Attorney" is the authorization for another person to act on your behalf for legal, financial or business matters.  You may do this, for example, if you have emigrated and have ongoing legal or business matters to attend to.  In this case, it may be convenient to have an authorized person sign documents on your behalf.

A "Durable Power of Attorney" has the same authorization, but the powers continue to be effective even if you become mentally incapacitated or incompetent for any reason.  Of course, you must be competent before the Durable Power of Attorney is set up.  You can also set up a Durable Power of Attorney to only come into effect if or when you become mentally incompetent.

You can also create a "Power of Attorney for Health Care" or "Advance Health Care Directive".  This gives the authority to a loved one to make healthcare decisions on your behalf.  For example, if you are critically ill a Power of Attorney for Health Care could dictate whether or not you should receive life-sustaining treatment or medication.  This is special type of document which can be created using the MyLivingWill™service here at LegalWills.co.za.

At LegalWills.co.za you can create each of the above types of Power of Attorney.

Make unlimited updates free of charge.  Don't pay a lawyer every time you need to update your Power of Attorney.  We allow your Power of Attorney to be kept securely online at LegalWills.co.za so that you can make unlimited updates for as long as you are a member here.  Not only will you always have a legal Power of Attorney, but it will always be kept up to date.

You can still have it reviewed by a lawyer.  If you wish, we can arrange for your Power of Attorney to be reviewed by a lawyer, who will check the document for consistency and completeness. (Currently not available in Ontario.)

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MyPowerOfAttorney™- Frequently Asked Questions

The MyPowerOfAttorney™ service steps you through a simple question and answer wizard, formats your answers into a readable format, and allows you to make unlimited updates to your Power of Attorney while allowing you to store your information securely online.  You can then designate your own personal "Keyholders®", who with their unique ID can unlock your Power of Attorney at the appropriate time.

The complete pricing structure is available on our Products & Prices page.

According to current laws in most jurisdictions, in order to be a legal document your Power of Attorney must be signed in the presence of two witnesses, and in most cases in front of a Notary Public.  A Notary Public has the legal standing to administer oaths and officiate over the signing process.  In other words, they are an independent person who will determine that all parties signed of their own free will, and that they are all who they say they are.

However, "electronic signature" laws are moving rapidly and we are closely monitoring these laws to support the future electronic notarization of documents, or even the electronic signature of your Power of Attorney.  It is only a matter of time before this becomes standard practice in preparing legal documents.  According to today's laws you will need to print the Power of Attorney you create with the MyPowerOfAttorney™ service and have it signed according to the laws in your area.  More details about this process are available on the help pages within the wizard. 

Although the unsigned version of your Power of Attorney stored online is not a legal document, if you wish you can allow one or more of your designated Keyholders® to have access to the Power of Attorney that you have created here.  This could be important if your legally signed copy cannot be located.  In this situation, your LegalWills.co.za Power of Attorney can still provide some guidance to a loving family, as they can understand how you would want your legal, financial and/or business matters to be handled.

You can choose to have a 1-year, 10-year, 25-year or Life membership at LegalWills.co.za, during which time you can make as many updates or amendments to your Power of Attorney as you wish at no extra charge.  Details of the membership packages available can be found on our Products & Prices page.

The question and answer wizard can be completed in less than 15 minutes, although this is not advisable, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the laws and processes involved.  The wizard has a wealth of helpful information that you will likely find educational and useful.  You should take the time to read through as much of this as possible, so that the Power of Attorney is not simply created, but you understand exactly what it means.  There may even be sections of the wizard that you feel warrant some additional research.

When working through the MyPowerOfAttorney™ service you do not have to complete the document in one sitting.  You can answer a couple of questions and then store these wishes securely online here at LegalWills.co.za until you have a few more minutes to answer additional questions.  If you prefer, you can spend many weeks or months making unlimited updates until you are happy with your final results, at which point you could have your final copy reviewed and signed.

All of your information stored at LegalWills.co.za is safe and secure.  Your information is so highly encrypted that nobody has access to this information other than yourself and your trusted Keyholders® using their randomly generated personal key.  Even the owners and administrators of LegalWills.co.za are not able to access your information due to the software design and encryption methods used.

Note, however, that some services require temporary decryption of a member's documents as part of the operation of providing that service.  For example, if the member wants to have their Will reviewed by one of our legal professionals, or wants to have their documents printed and mailed to them, then the software will automatically decrypt these documents as part of the member's instructions to have these services performed.

All data passing from your computer to LegalWills.co.za is authenticated and encrypted using 256-bit "SSL encryption".  This is the most advanced level of encryption available today, and it means that any information sent from your computer is scrambled in a way which makes it completely unintelligible if intercepted.  When you are on a secure section within the LegalWills.co.za site, a padlock will appear on your web browser.  This is your assurance that the encryption is in place and that you are communicating across a secure link.

Furthermore, we use an industry standard high security streaming-encryption algorithm known as "RSA" to encrypt all of your information before it is stored online.  To give you a feeling for the level of security provided by this encryption, it has been estimated that with the most efficient algorithms known to date, it would take a computer operating at 1 million instructions per second over 300 quintillion years (that's 3 with 20 zeros behind it!) to break the encryption. That's several trillion times longer than the age of the Earth.

Services such as MyFuneral™, MyLifeLocker™, MyVault™, and MyMessages™ do not create legal documents and make no assumptions about your country of residence. 

We have worked extensively with lawyers in Canada to ensure that the legal documents created by the MyWill™, MyExpatWill™, MyPowerOfAttorney™ and MyLivingWill™ services are up to date with the laws in all of the provinces in Canada, including: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec, Saskatchewan, and Yukon.  Hence, our services can be used to generate legal documents in any Canadian Province or Territory.

If you have any doubts about the legal standing of any documents in your jurisdiction, feel free to seek legal counsel in your area to have your documents reviewed.

There is a considerable amount of information included in the on-line help of the MyPowerOfAttorney™ wizard.  This will answer most of the common questions regarding the steps included in creating your own Power of Attorney. 

For information about the other services available, or about LegalWills.co.za in general, you can browse this website or send an email to [email protected].  We will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

 

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How It Works

When you create a Will or legal document at LegalWills, you can designate up to 20 different Keyholders®. Your chosen Keyholders® will be given the trust and power to unlock specific information within your account such as health care directives, funeral wishes, final messages, uploaded files, Power of Attorney, or Last Will and Testament.

You can also implement security mechanisms to prevent premature access to these documents. The entire process of creating your Will and other legal documents at LegalWills is seamless and iterative, meaning you can continue to make changes until you're happy with the final product.
Click. Print. Sign.

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Create Your Documents in Five Easy Steps

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Creating your documents is quick and easy with LegalWills. Simply fill out the required fields and proceed to the next step.

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Select Your Keyholders®

Entrust up to 20 individuals to unlock your wishes when the time is right.

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Edit Your Documents for Up To One Year for Free

Make any changes to your documents using our online service.

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Keyholders® Request Access

When the time is right, your selected Keyholders® will have the ability to unlock your wishes.

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Documents are Released to Keyholders®

When the time comes and your Keyholders® request access to your documents, your wishes will be entrusted in their hands.

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Frequently Asked Questions

There is absolutely no legal requirement to use the services of a lawyer to prepare your Will.

The law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and then signed by you in the presence of two witnesses. Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

If you need legal advice, you should secure the services of a lawyer, but most people do not need legal advice to prepare a Will. Especially if they are using a service like the one at LegalWills.co.za.
When you write your Will with a lawyer, you are paying for their training, so that if you needed custom clauses written for unique situations, they would probably be able to do this for you. However, most Wills do not require unique new clauses to be written, and the vast majority of Wills are a compilation of known legal "precedents".

Most lawyers use Will writing software to prepare Wills, and we use that exact same software, but give you direct access to it. You should really be asking why a lawyer charges R2,000 for about an hour's work.

If you have unusual circumstances, such as a child with special needs, then you may need legal advice. But for the vast majority, you would be paying premium rates for legal advice that you don't need.

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for R499 with nothing else to pay, ever.

What other options are there?
If you wish, you can have your Will reviewed by one of our lawyers for R999. Most people do not need this, and would not benefit from it, but if you have selected an option such as "None of the above. Let me describe in detail how to distribute my estate.", then you may want to consider this.

Your Will must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. If you do not have access to a printer, we can print it for you and mail it out. The cost for this is R99, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™ and a Living Will. They are not required, but they may be useful to you depending on your situation.

What about document storage?
We do not store physical documents, but we allow you to maintain an account with us if you want to update your document in the future.

The Will service costs R499. With this payment, you are able to prepare your Will. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF or Word file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

If you wish, you can choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a lawyer each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. R119 will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at R299, 10 years at R399, 25 years at R799 (R32 per year).

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

What happens if I don't maintain an account, and then in a few years I need to update it?
If your account has not been touched in years, and it is inactive, we reserve the right to remove the account. You will receive an email notification that your account might be removed. However, in practice, we have never actually removed any accounts in our over 25 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay R119 to reactivate it. This will give you one year of unlimited updates from the date of payment. (You will not have to pay for your inactive years.)

Our answer is different depending on what you are comparing us to.

The service at LegalWills.co.za is significantly better than a blank form Will kit that you can buy on Amazon or WHSmiths. These blank kits do not check for errors, allow you to do things you are legally not allowed to do, and rarely cover backup scenarios. They are actually the most difficult way to prepare a well drafted Will.

We provide the same quality documents as an estate planning lawyer – often word-for-word identical, because we use the same software that they use. We've just adapted it to make it easier to understand, and given you direct access to it. Therefore, you can create a lawyer grade Will, but from the comfort of your own home at less than a tenth of the price.

When compared to other online services, we have honest, up-front pricing that is better than any equivalent service. We also believe that we have the highest quality service online today. In all the time that we have been in business, never once has one of our Wills had an issue going through the probate process. We also offer best-in-class phone and email support if you get stuck.

Some other highlights:

  • Help text every step of the way.   Every page of our service has additional help text to answer your questions. If you get stuck, send us an email and we can help.

  • Create your Will from anywhere at any time.   Our service works on any computer, phone or tablet. Which means you can create or update your Will in the middle of the night in Timbuktu if you need to.

  • Unlimited updates.   If you write your Will with a lawyer, it could be out of date by the time you get home. You don't face that issue with LegalWills.co.za. If your circumstances change, simply login to your account, update your document, and sign your new Will. There is no charge for updates as long as you maintain a membership.

  • Professional reviews by a lawyer.   Our service works for the vast majority of situations, but on occasion people have unusual circumstances and need the reassurance of a legal professional's eye. We offer this as an option.

  • Our other services.   We don't just do Will writing. We offer a complete portfolio of services that will help you to plan your estate. We have the LifeLocker® executor tool, that allows you to document all of your personal details and assets, and MyVault™ that lets you upload important files. Together with our Keyholder® mechanism, you can be assured that the right information gets into the right hands at the right time (and not before).

  • Privacy and security.   We do not store any information as plain text. We do not store Wills in our database. All of your information is encrypted on our servers. Nobody can access it except you and your designated Keyholders® at the appropriate time. Furthermore, we do not share, trade or sell any of your data with third parties whatsoever.

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