Elder abuse and those who cause people in need to lose their rights must be stopped. HB 1204 has been introduced into the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2018 under the ominous sounding name Uniform Power of Attorney.
A proponent of the bill was asked if this was a consumer friendly bill and his answer was “it might reduce attorney’s fees.” What?
The Legislature got the 52 page bill introduced for passage with little time to read it much less understand it.
There are over 500 typographical errors as we read it. There are no definition of terms used.
There are words used with multiple definitions, which ones are we to use?
After you get past these errors we start looking at the questionable problems of usage. This legislation has put the protection of potential fraudsters ahead of the protection of a person needing help with a Power of Attorney.
If you want to know more about this mess, watch the video testimony and start to form your own opinions.
Everyone ages. In you time of need, we must be able to rely on people we trust to do the right thing and not worry an unscrupulous actor can interfere with your most precious and scary decisions of how we want to live in our old age and how we want to die. We need to protect the person before we can begin to protect the inheritance.
Help us defeat HB 1204. We must have updated Power of Attorney laws but they must first safeguard the person in need of help as a starting point. Please join us by writing to us at upoa@citizens4integrity.org with your stories of Power of Attorney and guardianship abuses. We need your help to stop this legislation in 2018.