Power Of Attorney - do you know what you need?

When our spouses deploy there are things that come up that we need to take care of for our home, family, or just specifically our spouse.

Is your name on all of your family accounts, your vehicle title and your insurance? If not, you will need a power of attorney while your spouse is deployed, otherwise you could find yourself powerless to conduct business transactions on behalf of your family.

Also, most posts will not let you do anything through DEERS without a power of attorney (here at Stewart they want a DEERS specific POA) while your spouse is away. JAG will not help you on behalf of your spouse if you don't have a power of attorney specifically for JAGs legal assistance. Some tax places let you file taxes with a special poa and some require one specifically for taxes.

When you get your POAs when your spouse deploys, make sure you make copies of them for the appropriate places... such as the bank, your car company, insurance company...

Power Of Attorney's I have had AND needed -
General POA
Special POA
DEERS POA
JAG POA
Taxes POA
Housing POA

To find out what POAs are available to you, have your spouse contact your local military legal office. Recently, the lawyers have been asking soldiers things like "are you sure you want to give her a financial poa?" , "how long have you known her?", "are you being forced to get this poa?"... don't take offense to these questions. They are simply trying to look out for the soldier because so many have been wiped out financially by their wives. All your spouse has to do is tell them, "This is my wife, I trust her with my finances and I want her to have this POA".

Make sure you're prepared =)