Who can legally step in for your DRS accounts if you can't?

Note: The examples and case studies in this article are hypothetical but represent real situations I have encountered in my practice working with Washington State public employees. I am a CPA and financial advisor, not an attorney, and this article is educational and not legal advice. Documents like powers of attorney should be drafted or reviewed by a licensed estate planning attorney.

A phone call about her father

Wendy calls me on a Tuesday morning, and I can tell right away this one is different.

She's 54, a county employee, PERS Plan 2, planning to retire at 59. Usually we talk about her pension timing and her DCP balance. Today she wants to talk about her dad.

He had a small stroke over the weekend. He's going to be okay. But the bills keep coming, and when she called his bank to help, they wouldn't talk to her.

She's his only daughter. She has a key to his house. None of that mattered to the bank.

"I thought being family was enough," she says.

It almost never is.

Love and trust are not the same as legal authority

Here's the part that surprises people. You can be the most trusted person in someone's life and still have no legal right to manage their money.

The tool that fixes this is a durable power of attorney for finances. It lets someone you choose (your agent) step in and handle bills and accounts while you're alive.1

"Durable" is the important part. A regular power of attorney generally stops working the moment you become incapacitated, which is often the exact moment help is needed. A durable one keeps working through it.2

Some of these documents take effect the day they're signed. Others "spring" into effect only after a doctor certifies incapacity.2 Springing sounds safer. In practice, getting that certification during early memory loss can be slow and frustrating, right when a family is already stretched thin.

Wendy's father, it turned out, had signed a durable power of attorney years ago. We just had to find it and get it to the bank.

What happens when the document doesn't exist

Plenty of families never get there. One national study found that only about 41 percent of parents expect their children to hold financial power of attorney for them.3 A common reason is simple: spouses name each other and never name a backup.

When there's no valid power of attorney and someone loses the capacity to sign one, the path forward usually runs through the courts. In Washington, that means a conservatorship under Chapter 11.130 RCW, where a judge decides who can manage the person's finances.4

It works, but it's a different experience. It becomes public record. It can take months. And the conservator often has to file an annual accounting with the court for as long as it lasts.4

A power of attorney signed ahead of time avoids most of that. The only thing that decides which path a family takes is whether the document got signed while it still could be.

Then Wendy asked the better question

We sorted out her dad. Then she got quiet for a second and asked the question I was hoping she'd ask.

"Wait. If something happened to me, could Mark even touch my accounts?"
Mark is her husband. And this is where it gets specific for public employees.

Your DRS accounts don't work like a joint checking account. For your agent to act on your pension or DCP, DRS requires two things: a valid power of attorney and a notarized Affidavit of Attorney in Fact. The power of attorney also has to meet Washington's requirements under Chapter 11.125 RCW.1

Being married doesn't override that. Without the right documents on file, even a spouse can hit a wall.

The powers people forget to include

There's one more layer, and it's easy to miss.

Washington law treats certain powers as "hot powers." Things like making gifts or changing a beneficiary designation only work if the document specifically grants them. A general power of attorney doesn't cover them automatically.5

Why does that matter for you? Because so much of your retirement passes by beneficiary designation, not by your will. Your DRS benefits go to the people you name, and if you name someone other than your spouse, state law may still require DRS to pay your spouse.6

If nobody can legally coordinate those designations when you're unable to, a small oversight can become a permanent one.

A few measured steps

None of this needs to happen this week. But here's where I'd point Wendy, and where I'd point you.

Find out what you already have. Pull the actual documents. Are they durable? Immediate or springing? Nobody remembers until they read the fine print.

If you have an immediately effective power of attorney, consider getting it to your institutions now, including DRS, so you learn about any problems while they're still fixable.

Look at your beneficiary designations on your pension, your DCP, and any IRAs, and make sure they still match your life today.

If you're the agent for a parent, keep clean records and sign as the agent, not as yourself. The format is their name, by your name, as attorney-in-fact.7

And when it's time to actually draft or update these documents, work with an estate planning attorney. I'm a CPA and financial advisor, not a lawyer, and this is one place where the right document, drafted correctly, is worth it.

The real point

None of this is really about paperwork.

It comes down to whether the person you'd want helping you, or helping your parents, is actually able to when the time comes.

Wendy got off that call with a short list and a lot less worry. That's how most of these end once someone can see the whole picture.

​Sources
1. Washington State Department of Retirement Systems. "Power of Attorney.." https://www.drs.wa.gov/sitemap/poa/
2. American Bar Association. "Power of Attorney.." https://www.americanbar.org/groups/real_property_trust_estate/resources/estate-planning/power-of-attorney/
3. Fidelity Investments. "2025 Family and Finance Study.." https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/literature/view?itemCode=9922495&renditionType=PDF
4. Washington State Legislature. "Chapter 11.130 RCW: Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Other Protective Arrangements Act.." https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.130
5. Washington State Legislature. "RCW 11.125.240: Authority that requires specific grant.." https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=11.125.240
6. Washington State Department of Retirement Systems. "Beneficiary information.." May 23, 2024. https://www.drs.wa.gov/beneficiary/
7. American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Foundation. "Guide for Agents Acting Under Durable Financial Powers of Attorney.." https://www.actec.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Guide_for_Agents_Acting_Under_Durable_Financial_Powers_of_Attorney.pdf