Faith Works 7-24-2026
Jeff Gill
Planning for mortality, as we must
___
There are troubles common to us all. I Corinthians 10:13 is instructive in this regard.
One of them has to do with aging family members, banks, and legal documents.
Let me say clearly right up top: I am a minister of the Gospel. I am not a lawyer, accountant, or financial adviser. You can find them out there as you have need. Clear so far?
I may not be a lawyer, but I know there are legal complications about aging and debility and dementia I have had to become familiar with over the last couple of decades. In church life as a pastor, as a grand-nephew and grandchild and son or son-in-law, I’ve gotten to know a great deal in practice about, say, how and when you have to renew a driver's license, which is a subject I haven’t written about for a while.
And I had no intention this July in the current sequence of columns to write about powers of attorney and bank accounts, but I posted something on my social media last week to which I’m still getting reactions and responses. This is beyond even the feedback I got when I wrote about shredded chicken sandwiches (if you weren't there, don’t worry about it).
First and key item I have no hesitation about telling you all: a power of attorney in your hands for another person effectively goes “poof” when that person dies. Your ability to manage or control business affairs changes drastically upon the death of a person for whom you may have a power of attorney. You can take that to the bank, as it were.
Which is where this gets sticky. If you go to a bank to do something with the accounts of a person for whom you have a power of attorney (or POA for short), you will learn that alone gives you now absolutely no authority at all. Post-mortem, you’re in the hands of probate, an executor, and so on (which varies by state, so Ohio law may not apply in another state the same way).
Folks are sometimes shocked to learn this, and thought they had what’s known as “transfer on death” or TOD status. This is where my counsel is limited, but know this, friends: not every POA allows you to get TOD on a bank account even while the individual you’re concerned about is living, and they are not equivalent when they die.
In fact, you may not have a POA, but a TOD works to allow you access to funds and to make transfers. Details here I leave to the professionals. But if you are thinking ahead, have a POA for someone ailing or declining, and that POA doesn't specifically allow you to assign beneficiaries (and many do not), you can’t get a TOD applied to an account without that person’s involvement and signature.
My father-in-law gave his daughter a great gift: she came to visit once, early in our having to step in and take care of shopping and cleaning and errands while he still lived independently (and drove, but I said licenses are a later tale for us to consider). He had gone to each of his banks, multiple because like a good Depression child, he believed in multiple banks. But at each he had done the TOD paperwork, and all she had to do was sign and take them around to the respective branches.
That’s the ideal situation. But if you have an aging loved one who trusts you with a medical power of attorney, maybe even a further limited POA, yet the accounts are all in their names only, if you want to simplify how those accounts are handled, you are likely to need their willing participation.
What I’ve learned is that as a person goes into cognitive decline, still relatively functional but with large gaps in thinking or recall, that last step may be hard to impossible.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s been through a bunch of this stuff and hopes to be of service to those just starting. Tell him your story at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
Planning for mortality, as we must
___
There are troubles common to us all. I Corinthians 10:13 is instructive in this regard.
One of them has to do with aging family members, banks, and legal documents.
Let me say clearly right up top: I am a minister of the Gospel. I am not a lawyer, accountant, or financial adviser. You can find them out there as you have need. Clear so far?
I may not be a lawyer, but I know there are legal complications about aging and debility and dementia I have had to become familiar with over the last couple of decades. In church life as a pastor, as a grand-nephew and grandchild and son or son-in-law, I’ve gotten to know a great deal in practice about, say, how and when you have to renew a driver's license, which is a subject I haven’t written about for a while.
And I had no intention this July in the current sequence of columns to write about powers of attorney and bank accounts, but I posted something on my social media last week to which I’m still getting reactions and responses. This is beyond even the feedback I got when I wrote about shredded chicken sandwiches (if you weren't there, don’t worry about it).
First and key item I have no hesitation about telling you all: a power of attorney in your hands for another person effectively goes “poof” when that person dies. Your ability to manage or control business affairs changes drastically upon the death of a person for whom you may have a power of attorney. You can take that to the bank, as it were.
Which is where this gets sticky. If you go to a bank to do something with the accounts of a person for whom you have a power of attorney (or POA for short), you will learn that alone gives you now absolutely no authority at all. Post-mortem, you’re in the hands of probate, an executor, and so on (which varies by state, so Ohio law may not apply in another state the same way).
Folks are sometimes shocked to learn this, and thought they had what’s known as “transfer on death” or TOD status. This is where my counsel is limited, but know this, friends: not every POA allows you to get TOD on a bank account even while the individual you’re concerned about is living, and they are not equivalent when they die.
In fact, you may not have a POA, but a TOD works to allow you access to funds and to make transfers. Details here I leave to the professionals. But if you are thinking ahead, have a POA for someone ailing or declining, and that POA doesn't specifically allow you to assign beneficiaries (and many do not), you can’t get a TOD applied to an account without that person’s involvement and signature.
My father-in-law gave his daughter a great gift: she came to visit once, early in our having to step in and take care of shopping and cleaning and errands while he still lived independently (and drove, but I said licenses are a later tale for us to consider). He had gone to each of his banks, multiple because like a good Depression child, he believed in multiple banks. But at each he had done the TOD paperwork, and all she had to do was sign and take them around to the respective branches.
That’s the ideal situation. But if you have an aging loved one who trusts you with a medical power of attorney, maybe even a further limited POA, yet the accounts are all in their names only, if you want to simplify how those accounts are handled, you are likely to need their willing participation.
What I’ve learned is that as a person goes into cognitive decline, still relatively functional but with large gaps in thinking or recall, that last step may be hard to impossible.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s been through a bunch of this stuff and hopes to be of service to those just starting. Tell him your story at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on X.
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