Putting
Power Where It Belongs - Use One Of Our Free Power Of Attorney Forms Below
Power Of Attorney Forms - What Are They ?
There a instrument
containing an authorization for one to act as the
agent of the principal that terminates esp. upon
revocation by the principal or death of the principal
or agent called also letter of attorney
A power of
attorney or letter of attorney in common
law systems or mandate in civil
law systems is an authorization to act on
someone else's behalf in a legal or business matter.
The person authorizing the other to act is the
"principal" or "grantor (of the
power)", and the one authorized to act is the
"agent"
or "attorney-in-fact". The
attorney-in-fact acts "in the principal's
name," signing the principal's name to
documents and filing suit with the principal's name
as plaintiff, for example.
As one kind of
agent, an attorney-in-fact is a fiduciary
for the principal, so the law requires an
attorney-in-fact to be completely honest with and
loyal to the principal in their dealings with each
other. If the attorney-in-fact is being paid to act
for the principal, the contract
is a separate matter from the power of attorney
itself, so if that contract is in writing, it is a
separate document, kept private between them,
whereas the power of attorney is intended to be
shown to various other people.
The power of
attorney (often called "POA" for
short) may be oral—such as asking someone else to
sign your name on a check because your arm is
broken—or may be in writing. Many institutions,
such as hospitals,
banks, and the I.R.S,
require a power of attorney to be in writing before
they will honor it, and they usually want to keep an
original for their records.
The "equal
dignity rule" is a principle of law that
requires a document authorizing someone representing
someone else to have been appointed with the same
formality as required for the act the representative
is going to perform, and it applies to powers of
attorney. This means, for example, that if you give
someone your power of attorney to sign the papers to
sell your house, and the law requires that signature
on the deed to be notarized,
then your power of attorney authorizing that
attorney in fact to sign the deed must be notarized,
too.
A power of attorney
may be "special" or "limited" to
one specified act or type of act, or it may be
"general," and whatever it defines as its
scope is what a court will enforce as being its
scope. (It may also be limited as to time.) Under
the common law, a power of attorney becomes
ineffective if its grantor dies or becomes
"incapacitated," meaning unable to grant
such a power, because of physical injury or mental
illness, for example unless the grantor
(or principal) specifies that the power of attorney
will continue to be effective even if the grantor
becomes incapacitated (but any such power ends when
the grantor dies). This type of power of attorney is
called a "durable power of attorney".
In some jurisdictions such a durable power of
attorney can also function as a "living
will", which can be used to
appoint someone to make health-care decisions for
the grantor, up to and including "pulling the
plug" on machines keeping them clinically
alive. New York State has enacted a "Health
Care Proxy" law that requires a separate
document be prepared appointing one as your health
care agent.
In some U.S. states
and other jurisdictions it is possible to enact a springing
power of attorney; i.e., a power that only takes
effect after incapacitation of the grantor or some
other definite future act or circumstance. After
such incapacitation the power is identical to a
durable power, but, unlike a durable power, cannot
be invoked before the incapacity. This is often used
to allow a spouse or family member to manage the
grantor's affairs in case illness or injury makes
him unable to act, while retaining the power for
himself before the incapacity occurs.
Unless the power of
attorney has been made "irrevocable" (by
its own terms or by some legal principle), the
grantor may revoke the power of attorney by telling
the attorney in fact it is revoked; however, if the
principal does not inform third parties and it is
reasonable that the third parties could rely upon
the power of attorney being in force, the principal
may still be bound by the acts of the agent, though
the agent may also be liable for such unauthorized
acts.
Many standardized
forms are available (usually for free) for various
kinds of powers of attorney, and many organizations
provide them for their clients, customers, patients,
employees, or members. In some states statutory
power of attorney forms are available as some
individuals have used powers of attorney to
unscrupulously waste that assets of vulnerable
individuals such as the elderly.
