It’s important to give Power of Attorney (“POA”) over your accounts to somebody. You can do a search on the internet for what a POA is and what it does. Every legal jurisdiction is different. The real challenge is getting someone at your bank or investment dealer to have it put in place. My goodness! What a challenge! You will need to be patient to get this done, and sometimes you’ll get some pushback from the bank on the POA (they want their own form, this or that or some other complication that you would never think of).
Sometimes the bank employees are poorly trained and haven’t a clue. Do nothing by phone. Go in person to the bank, and if you can’t get it done, go to a bigger branch if you can. It’s hard to understand why this is so difficult to do.
Rememeber, assume that there will be delays and that getting it done will not be straightforward.