Complications! Legal, Health, & Ethical

I just received a very difficult request to notarize a document. As a Notary Public this is what I do BUT this time I had to say no thank you. This one was just to complicated. YOU could have been the person calling me so pay attention to the circumstances.

The caller asked if I had a Power Of Attorney form his brother could fill out to give him control over his (the brother) checking account. He further asked if I could meet him and his brother at the hospital to notarize the document. He further stated that his brother is only expected to live another two days at the most.

Sounds simple but it's full of problems he and you may not have thought about.

#1) A Notary Public is not a lawyer and is not qualified to give legal advice. I have some general POA forms on legal programs and as the caller pointed out, he could get one on line or from Office Depot BUT this is very dangerous as the signer may give permissions in areas he never intended.

A POA may not be the right tool for what he wants to achieve. I don't believe a POA is enforceable should his brother die prior to the caller taking care of the banking business he needed the POA for.

#2) The caller further disclosed his brother is in the Covid unit. 

What do I do? I am 67 years old and I have a slew of health problems of my own. Furthermore even though I am fully vaccinated do I have to shut my own business down for for 10 days or what ever the current protocol is (not to mention endangering my own unvaccinated family)? 

So what is the moral to the story?

I believe the moral of the story is the old Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared! Contrary to popular belief it does not cost a zillion dollars to consult a lawyer. When Carol and I had our wills drawn up (very simple wills) we had POA's also written up for each of us. I'm pretty sure it cost us less then $500.. Far less then having a lawyer sort it out after the fact and far less money then we would be giving up to Uncle Sam as he would surly confiscate our hard earned money without having a legal instrument in place.