Power Of Attorney & Its Types

Power of Attorney

Power of Attorney is a type of business document which authorizes some person to act in a business or legal matter on your behalf. It is of different types:

General Power of Attorney (POA) – It authorizes other person to act on your behalf in many different situations such as in handling bank transactions, settling claims, buying/selling property, purchasing life insurance, taking loan, and others.
Special Power of Attorney (POA) – Here, other person will act on your behalf in specific situations only. For instance – special POA can be utilized for buying/selling a car, borrowing money, collecting debts etc.
Health Care Power of Attorney (POA) – It authorizes other person to take decisions regarding your health care when you are not able to do this on your own.
Durable Power of Attorney (POA) – The above three types of POAs can be made durable by including specific text in it.  

To create a legal POA, you must complete & sign Power of Attorney Form properly. The forms are available at law libraries, statute books and on various websites on the internet. You can take the help of a lawyer at the time of filling the form. Signatures must be done in front of a notary public. At some places, POA forms have to be signed in front of at least 2 witnesses.

POA form need to include this information – your name (when you are creating POA), postal address, time duration involved, social security number (SSN), clear statement on which powers granted to the agent are recorded, your signature & date. In the matters of estate tax, decedent’s name, death date and agent’s authorization should also be included. The necessary condition for signing POA form is that you have to be mentally competent when you have to sign the form. Otherwise, the form will not be considered valid.  

Sometimes, the financial institutions and banks have their own POA forms to cover only those transactions in which they deal. If you want to give some person the authority to operate your bank account, you must check with the bank if it has its own durable Power of Attorney Form. If some agent is given authority to handle your real estate, you may be asked to submit a copy of the file at local land record office.   

There are some other Power of Attorney forms like POA by Husband & Wife, POA Revocation, and in some states POA for Property & Finances.