Texas Financial Power of Attorney
The Texas Financial Power of Attorney (POA) allows people to give the rights for performing some official operations to another person. This type of power of attorney is general and applicable in many cases determined in the document. The person who wants to transfer his or her responsibilities can describe the amount of power provided to another person in the Power of Attorney form.
Power of Attorney Main Participants
- Principal — a person who signs the form and makes another person able to act on his or her behalf;
- Agent — a person who receives the power to handle assignments on behalf of the principal.
Motivation to Arrange Texas Financial Power of Attorney
Texas financial power of attorney can be applied for solving various financial problems. For example, it allows an agent to sign documents about the transfer of the property or request for certificate of titles.
There are two main motivations for people to assign another person and make him or her responsible for financial affairs:
- A principal cannot present physically on signing procedure because of the illness, traveling to another country, and other reasons.
- A principal wants to assign a person who will manage all the financial operations in case of the principal’s physical or mental disability.
Requirements to the Choice of Agent
As an agent will receive almost unlimited power and will be able to decide how to handle finances, the principal should be careful in the choice of this person. There are no legal requirements to this process except for the age of the agent. An agent should be legally able to participate in official processes, and that is why this person has to be over 18 years old.
Even though you as a principal can assign anyone as an attorney-in-law, you have to be sure that the chosen candidate is trustworthy and has enough mastery of managing finances correctly. Your choice of an agent can influence your financial position in the future, so be critical to the selection process.
Texas Laws and Requirements to Power of Attorney
Texas laws distinguish two main types of power of attorney that are regulated by different codes: financial and health care. As regards Texas financial power of attorney, it is regulated by Title 2, Chapter 752 of the Texas Estates Code. It says that the principal should select the coverage of power of attorney. You can create specific power of attorney choosing proper lines in the form or leave it general.
Notarization
According to the same law, the principal has to notarize a power of attorney to make it valid. A principal should sign the form only in the presence of the notary public, and it should be confirmed in the document.
Validity of Power of Attorney
Power of attorney transfers rights to an agent after signing and notarization of the form in all cases except one. When the principal arranges a durable POA in Texas, it will start to be valid only when the principal becomes incapable of managing finances. Only medical expertise can assign this status to the principal according to section 751.00201 of state law.
As regards the end of the deal, it can happen when one of the situations described below happens according to section 751.131:
- Power of attorney revocation by the principal;
- Terms stated in a power of attorney were met;
- Death of principal;
- Guardian was assigned to the principal.
Texas Financial Power of Attorney Completion Process
You can find a template for the POA form online and fill it out following our guide. You do not need to have any additional knowledge or hire a lawyer to complete the form as it is easy and fast to fill out by yourself.
Here is a short tutorial for the power of attorney form filling:
1 — Insert county and names of both parties
In the first part of the form, you should enter the name of the county where a power of attorney will be executed, the full name of the principal, and the county where the person is living. The same information should be provided for the agent.
2 — Sign the document and put the date
When you have read the statements in the form and are ready to execute a power of attorney, you have to sign it. Make sure that there are witnesses who can confirm your ability to make decisions at the moment of signing. Insert the date of signing the paper in the format requested in the template.
3 — Notarize the form
One of the requirements of the state to a power of attorney is its notarization. That is why you have to notarize the financial power of attorney form personally or online to make it valid.
When you finish completing the Texas financial power of attorney form, you should register it in your county. After this, the assigned agent will be able to make decisions about finances on your behalf until the time when you want to stop the validity of the document.
