General Power of Attorney Form

A general power of attorney can grant extensive powers to your Agent
and should only be issued to a person you trust and who will act in your best interests.

It can be used for many occasions such as when traveling out of state or country for an extended period or when you have a scheduled operation and/or hospital stay which will physically limit your ability to handle your affairs, where elderly people need a family member to act on their behalf, etc.

hand with pen

The free power of attorney form supplied here is for a specific period only. It automatically expires on the date specified in the document and there is no need to issue a revocation thereafter.

Unlike a durable or lasting power of attorney, it also expires should you become mentally incapacitated.

Before you use our free template below to draft your document, you should consider the following:

Would a specific or limited power of attorney not better suit your requirements? There is no need to grant someone the broad powers of a general power of attorney, when you only need them to handle one transaction (such as the sale of a property) on your behalf.
Whether you should appoint more than one person as your agent or attorney and how you would want them to reach decisions i.e. jointly or severally;
Which restriction or limitations you would want to specify;
Do you also (or alternatively) need an enduring or lasting power of attorney. One never knows when an elderly parent may lose intellectual capacity which would render a normal power of attorney null and void.

Please visit our main Power of Attorney page for links to more specific POA sample documents and pages where we discuss all these issues in depth.

General Power of Attorney

I, the undersigned

(Full legal names) ___________________________

(SS/Identity number) ___________________ residing at ____________________________________

hereby appoint and authorize

(Full legal names) ___________________________

(SS/Identity number) ___________________ residing at ____________________________________

as my Attorney-in-Fact (Agent) and with the power of attorney, delegation and substitution, to perform acts on my behalf which I have the power and capacity to perform.

If my Agent is unable to act on my behalf by reason of absence or by reason of mental incapacity or bankruptcy or unable or unwilling to serve for any other reason, I designate

(Full legal names) ___________________________

(SS/Identity number) ___________________ residing at ____________________________________

as substitute Agent with the same general power of attorney.

1. I hereby revoke any and all previous powers of attorney signed by me except for my Power of Attorney for Health Care which shall remain in force.

2. This power of attorney shall become effective on the
_____ day of ________________________20____ and shall expire on the
____ day of ______________________20____ or at an earlier date if revoked by me in writing.

3. This document shall be construed and interpreted as a general power of attorney and my Agent shall have full authority to act on my behalf in relation to all my property and affairs.

3. This document shall be construed and interpreted as a general power of attorney and my Agent shall have full authority to act on my behalf in relation to my property and affairs, save for the following conditions and restrictions:

3.1. _____________________

3.2. _____________________

4. I furthermore grant my Agent the authority to:

4.1. Make gifts within gift tax limits except to himself / herself.

4.2. Execute, amend or revoke any trust agreement.

4.3. Exercise the right to make a disclaimer on my behalf.

5. I indemnify and hold harmless my Agent from any loss that results from an error in judgment that was made in good faith, save for willful misconduct or the failure to act in good faith under the authority of this power of attorney.

6. I authorize my Agent to indemnify any third party from any claims which may arise against the third party because of reliance on this power of attorney.

7. My Agent shall provide accurate records of all transactions completed on my behalf and shall provide accounting records within_____ days if I so request or if a request is made by any other authorized representative acting on my behalf.

8. My Agent shall be entitled to reasonable compensation for his / her services at a rate as set out by law and for reimbursement of all reasonable expenses incurred on my behalf in his / her duties as my Agent.

Executed this ______ day of __________________20 ____

at ______________________________________

Signature: ________________________________

in the presence of the undersigned witnesses:

Witness 1.

Name: ______________________

Address: _____________________________________________

Signature: ________________________

Witness 2.

Name: ______________________

Address: _____________________________________________

Signature: ________________________

Acknowledgement

This document was acknowledged before me on this
______day of ____________________20__
by ________________________(Principal's full legal names) who is personally known to me or who has provided identification in the form of _________________.

Signature of Notary Public ______________________

Full legal names ______________________________

My commission expires ________________________

State of ________________________

County of ______________________

***

Printable General Power of Attorney or download it as a fillable PDF or Word template by following the links below:

NOTE: In our free general power of attorney template, we do not list all the instances where your agent may act on your behalf, but rather make provision for limitations or special conditions i.e. where he/she may not act on your behalf.

For example, you may have appointed and empowered your accountant to submit your tax returns on your behalf or you have appointed another person to act on your behalf in managing your real estate investments and would therefore want to exclude that from your general power of attorney.

General Power of Attorney - Limitations or Special Conditions

houses, laptop and chained piggy bank

You could place any restriction you wish, even if motivated by purely personal reasons. Review the examples below and consider whether you want to place any limits under Paragraph 3:

Perform any act pertaining to income and other tax returns with any government bodies.
Enter into any agreement pertaining to real estate owned by me including but not limited to the buying, selling, encumbering, improving, repairing and leasing thereof.
Extend any loans whether secured or unsecured or lend any property or the use of any property to any family members of mine or of any Agent named in this power of attorney.

If you find yourself adding too many limitations or you need your Agent to handle only certain matters on your behalf, you should consider issuing a limited power of attorney, rather than this general power of attorney.

We also have free power of attorney templates for real estate, buying or selling vehicles etc.

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