Does marriage automatically give a spouse decision-making authority?
Key takeaway
Marriage alone does not give a spouse authority to run a company or manage another person's financial affairs. For business owners, a trusted employee also lacks automatic authority, and a sole authorized signer's disability can create operational problems. Incapacity planning can document who handles health and financial decisions if a person becomes unable to make those decisions.
Business authority depends on authorization
Marriage alone does not authorize a spouse to run a company. A trusted employee does not automatically have that authority either. Practitioner experience describes operational problems when a sole authorized signer becomes disabled.
A durable power of attorney defines financial authority
A durable power of attorney appoints an agent to manage specified affairs. The granted powers continue if the person who made the document becomes incapacitated.
Financial and health care powers of attorney can name different agents. Practitioners explain that the trusted person for financial matters may differ from the person trusted to make health care decisions.
Health care authority has its own scope
A health care power of attorney authorizes someone to make medical decisions when a person is unable to make those decisions. Practitioners describe the document as remaining effective after incapacity begins.
Florida's medical proxy priority list places a spouse second, after a legal guardian or guardian advocate. The priority described here concerns medical decisions.
A parent lacks automatic authority over an adult child's affairs
A parent lacks legal authority over an adult child's affairs once the child reaches eighteen, according to practitioners. That point concerns a parent's authority over an adult child, while company authority depends on who has been authorized to act.