Can funeral plans be changed without power of attorney notification?

 Probably. The law gives individuals broad discretion to change their minds when setting out one of the most personal decisions imaginable: what to do with their bodies after death.

As long as the woman is mentally competent to enter a contract, she is free to change funeral arrangements. For this purpose, “mentally competent” would generally require that she understood what she was doing and had control over her actions when she revised her funeral arrangements. This is a fairly easy legal standard to meet--even for those who are seriously ill, unless the illness genuinely affects their reasoning powers.

Another possible way her plans could be challenged would be if there was good evidence that the daughters exercised such influence over their mother that the decision to change funeral plans was not her own. This, however, would be difficult to prove, as most courts would also require proof that the daughters somehow stood to benefit from the arrangement.