When my clients struggle at picking an executor for their wills, or a health care agent, or an agent under their power of attorney, they sometimes choose two or more children to act as their "co-agents". This is an arrangement where each child has just as much legal authority as the other.
If you have a similar set-up in your documents then there are a couple of things to take into consideration...
The first, and perhaps most obvious issue is whether the co-agents you have chosen get along well with each other or not. If they do not see eye-to-eye on most issues then you may be setting the stage for "gridlock" when it comes time for them to share decision-making responsibilities about your finances or personal affairs. If they cannot resolve any given disagreement then you risk getting the local probate court involved.
The second issue is that even if they get along well they may be geographically distant from one another. Maybe one child is local while the other is somewhere out on the west coast. This is not a serious concern if they are co-executors in your will, but a logistical problem may evolve if they are co-health care agents or co-agents under your power of attorney and they need to act quickly to respond to an emergency situation.
Unless they are co-agents with "several" powers or "joint and several" powers, then whatever hospital or financial institution they are dealing with may require that they both act together and both sign all the relevant documents. In a practical sense, this may prove to be a difficult requirement to meet if one agent is far away and cannot be reached, or perhaps out of town on business or on vacation. Then you risk having a situation where nothing can be done for a significant period of time.
So, unless there is an extraordinary situation taking place, if you have co-agents then make sure they have "several" or "joint and several" powers which will allow either of them to act independently in case the other agent cannot act for some reason. This is usually the most practical and convenient arrangement for co-agents.
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