power of attorney
| Dictionary: power of attorney |
n., pl., powers of attorney. (Abbr. PA or P/A)
A legal instrument authorizing one to act as another's attorney or agent.
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: power of attorney |
For more information on power of attorney, visit Britannica.com.
| Investment Dictionary: Power Of Attorney |
A legal document giving one person (called an "agent" or "attorney-in-fact") the power to act for another person (the principal). The agent can have broad legal authority or limited authority to make legal decisions about the principal's property and finance. The power of attorney is frequently used in the event of a principal's illness or disability, or when the principal can't be present to sign necessary legal documents for financial transactions.
Investopedia Says:
There are many good reasons to make a power of attorney, as it ensures that someone will look after your financial affairs if you become incapacitated. You should choose a trusted family member, a proven friend or a reputable and honest professional. Remember, however, that signing a power of attorney that grants broad authority to an agent is very much like signing a blank check - so make sure you choose wisely and understand the law that applies to the document.
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| Financial & Investment Dictionary: Power of Attorney |
In general: written document that authorizes a particular person to perform certain acts on behalf of the one signing the document. The document, which must be witnessed by a notary public or some other public officer, may bestow either full power of attorney or limited power of attorney. It becomes void upon the death of the signer.
Investments: full power of attorney might, for instance, allow assets to be moved from one brokerage or bank account to another. A limited power of attorney, on the other hand, would only permit transactions within an existing account. A broker given a limited power of attorney, for instance, may buy and sell securities in an account but may not remove them. Such an account is called a Discretionary Account.
See also Discretionary Order; Proxy; Stock Power.
| Business Dictionary: Power of Attorney (POA) |
Instrument by which one person, as principal, appoints another as his agent and confers upon him the authority to perform certain specified acts or kinds of acts on behalf of the principal. The primary purpose of a power of attorney is to evidence the authority of the agent to third parties with whom the agent deals. A person need not be an attorney-at-law to have the power of attorney to act for another. There are several types of POA: general, specific, durable, and springing.
| Real Estate Dictionary: Power of Attorney |
An Instrument authorizing a person to act as the Agent of the person granting it. See Attorney-In-Fact.
Example: Abel is going on a 6-month vacation to China. He wants to sell his house in Colorado for $175,000 but will not be present to sign the Deed. He gives his trusted friend Baker the power of attorney so Baker may deed the property to a Grantee while Abel is in China.
| Architecture: power of attorney |
An instrument authorizing another to act as one’s agent. Also See attorney-in-fact.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: health-care proxy |
health-care proxy, legal document in which a person assigns to another person, usually called an agent or proxy, the authority to make medical decisions in case of incapacitation. It is, in essence, a power of attorney for health care. In many cases, the health-care proxy is used in conjunction with a living will that spells out the person's wishes regarding the extent of life-sustaining treatment desired at the end of life. It differs from a living will, however, in that the chosen agent has the authority to deal with any medical situation that may arise, not just end-of-life situations, and in that the agent can deal with circumstances not foreseen by the person in a living will. A health-care proxy gives a next of kin or other family member additional authority to make decisions; it can also be used to assign authority to someone outside the family. Health-care proxies go into effect when the attending physician determines that the patient lacks the capacity to make decisions. Prior to that time, the person retains all decision-making rights.
Bibliography
See publications of Choice in Dying.
| Law Encyclopedia: Power of Attorney |
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
A written document in which one person (the principal) appoints another person to act as an agent on his or her behalf, thus conferring authority on the agent to perform certain acts or functions on behalf of the principal.
Powers of attorney are routinely granted to allow the agent to take care of a variety of transactions for the principal, such as executing a stock power, handling a tax audit, or maintaining a safe-deposit box. Powers of attorney can be written to be either general (full) or limited to special circumstances. A power of attorney generally is terminated when the principal dies or becomes incompetent, but the principal can revoke the power of attorney at any time.
A special type of power of attorney that is used frequently is the "durable" power of attorney. A durable power of attorney differs from a traditional power of attorney in that it continues the agency relationship beyond the incapacity of the principal. The two types of durable power of attorney are immediate and "springing." The first type takes effect as soon as the durable power of attorney is executed. The second is intended to "spring" into effect when a specific event occurs, such as the disability of the principal. Most often, durable powers of attorney are created to deal with decisions involving either property management or health care.
Durable powers of attorney have become popular because they enable the principal to have her or his affairs handled easily and inexpensively after she or he has become incapacitated. Before the durable power of attorney was created, the only way to handle the affairs of an incapacitated person was to appoint a guardian, a process that frequently involves complex and costly court proceedings, as well as the often humiliating determination that the principal is wholly incapable and in need of protection. With a durable power of attorney, on the other hand, a principal can appoint someone to handle her or his affairs after she or he becomes incompetent, and the document can be crafted to confer either general power or power in certain limited circumstances. Because no judicial proceedings are necessary, the principal saves time and money and avoids the stigma of being declared incompetent.
The concept of the durable power of attorney was created in 1969 when the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws promulgated the Uniform Probate Code (U.P.C. § 5-501). Ten years later, the provisions of the code dealing with the durable power of attorney were modified and published as the Uniform Durable Power of Attorney Act (UDPA). All fifty states recognize some version of the durable power of attorney, having adopted either the UDPA or the Uniform Probate Code, or some variation of them. Versions of the durable power of attorney vary from state to state. Certain powers cannot be delegated, including the powers to make, amend, or revoke a will, change insurance beneficiaries, contract a marriage, and vote.
See: living will.
| Wikipedia: Power of attorney |
For the television program, see Power of Attorney (TV show).
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008) |
A power of attorney (POA) 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, granter or donor (of the power), and the one authorized to act is the agent, the attorney-in-fact[1], or in many Common Law jurisdictions, simply the attorney.
Contents |
Attorney-in-fact
The term attorney-in-fact is commonly used in the United States, to make a distinction from the term Attorney at law. An attorney-at-law in the United States is a lawyer—someone licensed to practice law in a particular jurisdiction.
In most other common law jurisdictions, lawyers are not called attorneys. In those jurisdictions the term "attorney" is used instead of "attorney-in-fact".
As an 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 usually separate 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.
In the context of the unincorporated reciprocal inter-insurance exchange (URIE) the attorney-in-fact is a stakeholder/trustee who takes custody of the subscriber funds placed on deposit with him, and then uses those funds to pay insurance claims. When all the claims are paid, the attorney-in-fact then returns the leftover funds to the subscribers.
Oral and written powers of attorney
A power of attorney may be oral and whether witnessed or not, will hold up in court, same as if it were in writing. For some purposes, the law requires a power of attorney to be in writing. Many institutions, such as hospitals, banks and, in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service, require a power of attorney to be in writing before they will honor it, and they will usually keep an original copy for their records. In some countries and situations, an Electronic Power of Attorney can also be considered valid.
Equal dignity rule
The equal dignity rule is a principle of law that requires an authorization for someone performing certain acts for another person to have been appointed with the same formality as required for the act the representative is going to perform. This means, for example, that if a principal authorizes someone to sell the principal's house or other real property, and the law requires a contract for the sale of real property to be in writing (which is required under the "Statute of Frauds" in most U.S. jurisdictions), then the authorization for the other person to sign the sales contract and deed must be in writing too.
Types of powers of attorney
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, a durable power of attorney can also be a "Health Care Power of Attorney", an advance directive which empowers the attorney-in-fact (proxy) to make health-care decisions for the grantor, up to and including terminating care and "pulling the plug" on machines keeping a critically and terminally ill patient alive. Health care decisions include the power to consent, refuse consent or withdraw consent to any type of medical care, treatment, service or procedure.[2] A living will is a written statement of a person's health care and medical wishes but does not appoint another person to make health care decisions. [3] New York State has enacted a Health Care Proxy law that requires a separate document be prepared appointing one as your health care agent.
People with mental illness may prepare Psychiatric Advance Directives (PADs in some U.S. states) or Ulysses contracts as they are called in Canada. Ulysses contracts are powers of attorney that enable a patient to dictate preferences for care before becoming incapacitated by recurring mental illness. Although they are not used very often, there is speculation in some of the academic literature as to whether or not these advance directives are empowering for people with mental illness (Journal of Ethics in Mental Health 2006-1).
In some U.S. states and other jurisdictions it is possible to grant a springing power of attorney; i.e., a power that only takes effect after the incapacity of the grantor or some other definite future act or circumstance. After such incapacitation the power is identical to a durable power, but cannot be invoked before the incapacity. This may be used to allow a spouse or family member to manage the grantor's affairs in case illness or injury makes the grantor unable to act, without the power of an attorney-in-fact before the incapacity occurs. If a springing power is used, care should be given to specify exactly how and when the power springs into effect. As the result of privacy legislation in the U.S., medical doctors will often not reveal information relating to capacity of the principal unless the power of attorney specifically authorizes them to do so.
Determining whether or not the principal is "disabled" enough for the power of attorney to "spring" into action is a formal process. Springing powers of attorney are not automatic, and institutions may refuse to work with the attorney-in-fact. Disputes are then resolved in court, which is of course a costly, and usually unwanted, procedure.
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 for the third parties to 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 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. Some individuals have used powers of attorney to unscrupulously waste or steal the assets of vulnerable individuals such as the elderly (see elder abuse).
Robert's Rules of Order notes that proxy voting involves granting a power of attorney. The term "proxy" refers to both the power of attorney itself and the person to whom it is granted.[4]
Power of attorney in finance
In financial situations wherein a principal requests a securities broker to perform extensive investment functions on the principal's behalf, independent of the principal's advice, power of attorney must be formally granted to the broker to trade in the principal's account. This rule also applies to principals who instruct their brokers to perform certain specific trades and principals who trust their brokers to perform certain trades in the principal's best interest.
UK Law
In English law, anyone with capacity can grant a Power of Attorney. These can be general (i.e. to do anything which can legally be done by an attorney), or relate to a specific act (eg. to sell freehold property).
A normal Power of Attorney however ceases to have effect if the donor loses capacity. If it is the donor's intention for the Power to continue after they have lost capacity, then a "Lasting Power of Attorney" (LPA) should be granted. These came into being in 1 October 2007, and replaced the "Enduring Powers of Attorney" (EPA's) which had previously been used. LPA's were introduced by the government in order to reduce the potential for abuse that was a problem with the EPA system, and also to allow donors to grant attorneys the power to look after their welfare and not just their finances, which had not been possible under the EPA regime. It is worth noting that an EPA made out before October 2007 can still be registered.
The new LPA regime is therefore subject to stronger safeguards than the old EPA regime. Registering an LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian costs £120, and the documents can be filled in and submitted without the need to appoint a solicitor, meaning additional fees can be avoided. The document requires an independent 'Certificate Provider' who can be a solicitor, GP or social worker, among others. Alternatively, someone who has known you well for more than two years may take this role, providing they are not a family member.[2]
UK Government Public Guardianship Office - Clear explanation of the process by the office that manages Enduring Powers of Attorney and Lasting Powers of Attorney.
In Scots law, a power of attorney can be granted by an individual with capacity. If it is intended that the power of attorney is to take effect on the incapacity of the granter, then the verification of a practising solicitor is a required solemnity of execution. The document must be registered with the Public Guardian before it can take effect. There are currently two types of power of attorney – continuing and welfare.
Irish Law
Irish law allows two types of powers of attorney:[5]
- an ordinary Power of Attorney which ceases to be effective if the Donor becomes mentally incapacitated and,
- an Enduring Power of Attorney which takes effect only on the mental incapacity of the donor.
Either kind of power of attorney may be a general power, giving the attorney general power to perform any legal act that the donor might do, or a specific power, giving the attorney power to perform a specific action (or a specific type of action) on the donor's behalf.[6]
Russian Law
In accordance with the laws of Russia can be as simple written form (a power of attorney for the right to control the car) and notarized. The power of attorney to act, requiring a notarial certificate (so-called «notarial form»), shall be certified by a notary. The power of attorney to act, not requiring a notarial certificate, have the force and without notarial certification.
Predstavitelstvo, Doverennost
Ukrainian Law
Predstavnytstvo see chapter 17 of Civil Code of Ukraine
- by law
- by agreement
- commercial
See also
References
- ^ "Power of attorney". Nolo. http://www.nolo.com/definition.cfm/Term/772A6EE5-D686-40BD-91A13065E6386164/alpha/P/. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ "Living Wills And The Durable Power Of Attorney For Health Care". Kansas Bar Association. http://www.ksbar.org/public/public_resources/pamphlets/living_wills.shtml. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
- ^ "Health Care Power of Attorney". NUPP Legal. http://www.nupplegal.com/health-care-power-attorney.html. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
- ^ RONR (10th ed.) p. 414
- ^ "Power of Attorney". Citizens Information Board. 2007-08-30. http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/death/before-a-death/power_of_attorney. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ Powers of Attorney Act 1996[1]
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Durable Power of Attorney (business term)
- Springing Power of Attorney (business term)
- Trading Authorization (business term)
- attorney-in-fact
- Estate Planning (in medicine)
- PA (abbreviation)
- General Power of Attorney (business term)
- Health Care Power of Attorney (business term)
- Power of Sale (business term)
- Proxy (business term)
- Stock Power (business term)
- Personal Representative
- Revocation
- Reinsurance Exchange (insurance term)
