Most of us may have heard of power of attorney but few of us actually know what it's all about.

If you need to sign legal documents while you are away, you can appoint someone as your attorney-in-fact or agent to carry out what you would have done in person. You do so with power of attorney. That's why power of attorney is a useful legal instrument.

Here's exactly how to create a power of attorney in 3 easy steps

1. Power of attorney is a pretty standard document. When you google with key phrase like "power of attorney", you will get many sites that have power of attorney for you to download directly. Make sure you download and save it in your PC.

You can also get pre-printed power of attorneys with your local stationers who sell legal documents. In which case you don't have to download one from internet.

Chances are power of attorney you downloaded from internet is in PDF format. On the other hand printed version has to be scanned in a scanner and saved as Tif document.

2. Once saved as PDF or Tif, you now can convert this power of attorney into an editable format and save it as a word document. For this you have to go to google again but this time search for a site that does conversion of PDF and scanned documents online. Make sure the site you select is authentic and a safe site, do not ignore this important aspect. You can then edit or amend your power of attorney in word format.

3. Review the word version of power of attorney and complete all entries. Review once again and go to a lawyer to get your power of attorney ratified. Once approved by your lawyer, your power of attorney is now ready to be signed on legal paper.

There is a caveat though, I would rather say hidden danger. When you search on google for a site that converts documents into an editable format, you will get many sites that do that, some sites convert for free while some charge few cents a page. You may be tempted to select a free site because its for free - but that's exactly where the danger is. You must select only a safe site. Do not ignore this point, because you will soon learn how important it is to select a safe site.

Here's exactly how to look for a safe site?

A ballpark method is to check if it's a paid or a Free site. Paid site is safer than free site in more ways than one, like getting high quality help, proof reading by an expert so that your power of attorney has no mistakes, provide safe and secure environment to work online plus more features. This way you may find that few cents per page you pay when you subscribe may not be expensive at all.

Remember, sometimes we learn the hard way but Free sites may not be free from viruses, piracies, phishing etc that cause plenty of pain. So watch out and keep away from these evils of today by keeping away from Free sites.

That's why paid sites are a preference because they are safe and sound for high quality outcomes you wouldn't want to risk with free sites. Not for an important document like your power of attorney.

So if you were to make a decision 'to pay or not to pay' what will be yours?