What is a power of attorney?

A Power Of Attorney is a legal document that assigns a trusted person, usually a family member or close friend, to act on your behalf. Ideally, every adult should have one because accidents happen that can incapacitate someone of any age. However, as we age, it becomes much more important to have this document drawn up. Then, if we should have a stroke, develop dementia or have another issue that keeps us from paying our bills or carrying out other important activities, the person we designated as Power Of Attorney can step in for us. It's also wise to have a POA for health care, sometimes called a health directive. This allows another person to make health decisions for us if we can't do it for ourselves.
Take care,
Carol

must a power of attorney be assigned by going through an attorney, a court, a notary public, witnessed by others, or just signed by the person who wishes to assign such a position to another?

we did not use an attorney.it was notorized,but other than that it was pretty straight forward. however there were no assests, real estate, nothing that would complicate anything...