Although there are more and more products to diversify our savings, the majority of people still have the bulk in the conventional checking account they have always had. It is equally common to put our partner or children as authorized, so that they can check the balance and their movements, as well as have access to their money if the owner has requested a credit card for this purpose.
This widespread use, however, can be misleading. And it has its limitations, such as in the event that the account holder becomes incapacitated. This is how financial advisor Ignacio Silvestre explained it, through his Instagram account (@ignacio_silvestre): “If you have your parents or your wife authorized on your account, you are probably having an error and you don’t know it.”
This expert explains that “many people put their wife or husband or children as authorized in their bank checking account, thinking that if something happens, my son or wife will have access to do things, but this doesn’t work like that.” In this case, what is needed is a preventive power of attorney.
Preventive power of attorney
Silvestre clarifies that, if something serious happens to us, such as “if you are not or are incapacitated in a hospital,” what is needed is not to have an authorized person in our checking account, but “a preventive power of attorney that is perfectly designed for when you are not capable of making decisions.”
This power of attorney allows us to designate a person to act on our behalf if we lose our natural ability to act for ourselves. If this is not available, a support provision procedure should be initiated to appoint a curator, which is a more laborious process, as stated in Law 8/2021.
Otherwise, the funds in the account could be blocked, since the bank can revoke or block the authorized permission as soon as it detects that the owner does not have the “capacity to act.” At this point, until the judge rules on the necessary support, the family could find itself without access to money to cover medical or basic expenses.
Finally, note that there are two types of preventive power of attorney: those that take effect only when the disability situation occurs and those that take effect from the moment of signing and subsist if the disability occurs. Both are valid, but the second is the most common to avoid extra procedures.