Deal papers and endings
Power of attorney
A document by which one person or company authorises another to act on their behalf — signing papers, dealing with an account, handling a transaction, or managing affairs more generally. Its scope can be narrow or broad, and it can be written to survive or to end if the person granting it loses capacity. The formalities are set by local law and are unusually strict: witnessing, notarisation and registration requirements differ from place to place, and a document that does not meet them may not work at all.
- In the catalogue
- Deal papers and endings
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Companies authorising somebody to sign or act in a transaction.
- Individuals arranging for a trusted person to handle specific affairs.
- Anyone who needs somebody else to act for them while they are unavailable.
What you are deciding
- Who is granting the authority, and to whom
- Exactly what the attorney may do, and what they may not
- Whether it is limited to one matter or general
- When it starts, and when it ends
- Whether it survives loss of capacity, where the law allows
- Whether more than one attorney acts, and together or separately
- What formalities local law requires
- How it is revoked, and who is told
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1The person granting the authority
- 2The attorney
- 3Scope of authority
- 4Limitations
- 5When it takes effect
- 6Duration and expiry
- 7Acting jointly or separately
- 8Revocation
- 9Execution formalities
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
The names this kind of paper goes by. They are here because people search for them. They also filter the catalogue. They are not a wordlist the door matches. At the composer you describe the deal in your own words instead.
- power of attorney
- poa document
- authority to act
- letter of authority
- attorney appointment
- mandate document
Questions people ask
- What formalities does a power of attorney need?
- It varies a great deal — witnessing, notarisation, registration with a public body, or a prescribed form. Ask a lawyer, because a document that misses a local requirement may have no effect.
- Does it end if the person loses capacity?
- In many systems an ordinary authority ends at that point, and a separate, more formal instrument is needed to continue. What is available depends entirely on local law.
- How is it revoked?
- Usually by written notice to the attorney and to anybody relying on it, and sometimes by a filing where the document was registered. Telling the third parties is the step most often missed.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
You do not start from this page. Describe the deal in one sentence at the door. Read the draft back in plain language, in the order a contract is read.
Start it at the door →Related kinds