Estate Planning & Administration
Powers Of Attorney
Last updated May 2026
8 min read
✓ Verified ✓ Verified May 2026Pennsylvania's power of attorney statute (20 Pa.C.S. Chapter 56) allows you to appoint an agent to handle your financial affairs. A durable financial power of attorney remains effective even if you become incapacitated, which is precisely when you need it most.
Since January 1, 2015, Pennsylvania requires all three of the following for a valid financial POA:
A POA that fails any of these requirements is void. This is the most common problem I see with internet-form POAs. They either omit the statutory notice, lack the witness requirement, or use the pre-2015 format. If your POA was signed before January 1, 2015, it's still valid under the law in effect when it was executed, but it's worth reviewing to ensure it includes the powers you actually need.
Act 95 also created three duties the agent must follow, and the principal cannot waive them:
These are non-negotiable. A POA that tries to eliminate the duty of good faith or authorize the agent to act contrary to the principal's interests is unenforceable on those points.
This is where most generic and internet-generated POAs fail. Pennsylvania law identifies specific powers that are not included in a general grant of authority. They must be specifically and expressly authorized in the document. These "hot powers" include:
If your POA does not specifically include these powers and you need your agent to make gifts, create trusts, or change beneficiaries (for instance, as part of a Medicaid crisis plan) your agent cannot do it. The family's only option at that point is a guardianship proceeding ($3,000–$10,000+) to get court authority for what a $300 document should have covered.
Section 5601.4(b) adds a further restriction: agents who are not a spouse, parent, child, grandchild, or sibling of the principal face additional limitations on hot powers. The POA can be drafted to opt out of these limitations, but only if the drafter knows they exist.
⚠ The Bank Refused My Power of Attorney: Now What?
This is the single most common POA problem families bring to us. Mom is in the hospital. Son has a valid durable POA. He walks into the bank to pay Mom's bills, and the bank says no. The teller says "you need your own form," or "this is too old," or "you need to send it to legal." Mom's mortgage is due in ten days. What do you do?
Pennsylvania law is on your side, and most banks don't realize how much exposure they're creating by refusing.
Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5608.1, a third party (including a bank, brokerage, title company, or any financial institution) presented with a valid POA must accept it within strict timeframes:
A person who refuses to accept a valid POA in violation of § 5608.1 is subject to:
In practice, a letter from an attorney citing § 5608.1 and the specific statutory deadlines resolves the problem within days. Banks have compliance departments that understand the statute even when the branch-level employees don't. The letter puts the bank on notice that refusal creates liability, and banks don't like liability.
The statute is not unlimited. A bank may refuse to accept a POA if:
But "the policy requires your own form" and "this POA is more than a year old" are not legitimate grounds for refusal. An otherwise valid POA does not expire due to age alone. § 5604(b) provides that a durable POA is valid "notwithstanding the lapse of time since its execution" unless the document itself states a termination date.
Practical Tip: Prevent the Problem
Even though the law is clear, fighting a bank refusal costs time and money. The smarter move is prevention. When we draft a POA, I recommend (1) executing the POA on the bank's own form in addition to the general durable POA, at least for your primary bank and brokerage accounts. This eliminates the argument entirely; (2) having the agent present the POA to the bank before it's needed, during a calm period when the principal is still competent and can confirm the agent's authority in person; and (3) keeping the original POA in a known, accessible location (not a safe deposit box the agent can't access without the POA). We can advise on all of this during your consultation.
Pennsylvania treats financial and healthcare powers of attorney as separate documents with separate statutory frameworks. A financial POA (20 Pa.C.S. Chapter 56) authorizes an agent to handle money, property, banking, taxes, real estate, and most other non-medical decisions. A healthcare POA (20 Pa.C.S. Chapter 54) authorizes an agent to make medical decisions, including end-of-life decisions, if the principal cannot communicate.
The two documents have different formalities. A financial POA requires notarization and two witnesses under § 5601(b). A healthcare POA requires the principal's signature plus two witnesses under § 5452 but does not require notarization. The agents named in each document do not have to be the same person, and many people deliberately separate them: one trusted person handles money, another handles medical decisions. See Healthcare Directives and Living Wills for the medical side.
Pennsylvania allows two timing structures:
For most clients, an immediate durable POA in the hands of someone they trust is the better choice. The agent has the authority but uses it only when needed.
A POA can be revoked at any time so long as the principal is competent. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5605, revocation can be accomplished by:
Revocation is not automatic just because you sign a new POA. To eliminate confusion, the new POA should include an express revocation clause, and copies of the revocation should be delivered to the prior agent and to any institution that has a copy of the old POA on file (banks, brokerages, the recorder of deeds if recorded).
For a properly drafted durable financial POA with a healthcare POA and living will package, our flat-fee pricing is in the same range as a basic estate plan. Internet forms cost less but routinely fail one of the Act 95 execution requirements or omit the hot powers, which is what creates the bank-refusal scenarios above.
Yes. An agent owes fiduciary duties under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5601.3 and can be held personally liable for breaches: misappropriation, self-dealing, gifts outside the granted authority, or actions contrary to the principal's reasonable expectations or best interest. The Orphans' Court can compel an accounting, surcharge the agent, or remove the agent.
The family's only option is a guardianship proceeding in the Orphans' Court. Guardianship is expensive ($3,000 to $10,000 or more), public, and slow, often three to six months from petition to appointment. Avoiding guardianship is the single biggest reason to put a properly drafted POA in place before incapacity strikes.
Yes. The POA can grant broad authority over everything, or it can be limited to specific tasks (one transaction, one account, one piece of real estate). It can include conditions, time limits, and exclusions. Limited POAs are sometimes used in real estate closings when the principal cannot attend; they end automatically once the transaction closes.
Often yes. If you own real estate in Pennsylvania, a Pennsylvania POA executed under Pennsylvania law makes title companies and county recorders far more comfortable than an out-of-state POA. PA recognizes valid out-of-state POAs under § 5611, but the practical friction of using one is real.
Statutory content on this page was last verified against Pennsylvania statutes (20 Pa.C.S.; 72 P.S. Art. XXI): ✓ Verified May 2026. If you are reading this significantly after that date, confirm key provisions with current statute text or contact our office.
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