Arm yourself with the necessary legal documents

It could turn into a bad dream for anyone. Your spouse becomes incapacitated and you are unable to take care of important financial or legal matters because you don't have the legal authority. Or you can't access health-care information about a child because of federal privacy provisions.

These are among the topics that attorney Laurie S. Hart will discuss at Wednesday's Smart Women, Smart Money conference at the Salt Palace.

Hart, whose specialties include estate planning, is with the Salt Lake law firm of Callister Nebeker & McCullough.

She said there are three documents everyone should have: a general power of attorney, a medical power of attorney and a living will.

• A power of attorney is a document in which you name someone who can act on your behalf. It can be narrow in scope, such as naming another person to close on the sale of your house because you'll be out of town, or, in the case of a general power of attorney, it can bestow broad powers on another person to take care of day-to-day financial/legal matters such as paying bills and accessing bank accounts.

A general power of attorney should include language that makes it "durable." Otherwise, it

is no longer in effect if you become incapacitated.

"Someone needs to act because you're incapacitated, if you slip and fall, if you're in a car accident, if you have dementia," Hart said. "Without the durable language, the powers would cease to be effective."

• A medical power of attorney is used for making medical decisions and accessing health-care information. It should include language that deals with provisions in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that could otherwise limit another person's access to your medical information and his ability to make medical decisions for you should you become incapacitated.

When you visit a doctor's office or are admitted to a hospital, you're asked to sign a consent form that includes HIPAA privacy provisions for protected medical information.

A good estate planner will include access to protected medical information in a medical power of attorney.

Without that access, those provisions could work against you if you become incapacitated, possibly preventing even your spouse from knowing the results of medical tests.

Hart recalled a couple of anecdotes that illustrate the roadblocks HIPAA can create.