Financial / Tax info

Generally, what a person with a power of attorney (known as “the agent”) is allowed to do may depend on the specific document. For instance, some power of attorney documents allow the agent to make financial decisions for the person who gave the power (known as “the principal”), even if the principal is still able to make those decisions him/herself.

In addition, when a power of attorney document says that the agent has power if the principal is incompetent, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a court decision that “declares” the principal to be incompetent. Instead, the agent may be able to just say that the principal is no longer competent. For example, it may be enough for a bank to hear “My wife is no longer competent or able to make decisions, and I am signing on her behalf as her power of attorney.”

While we don’t have this information on our website, I did some research and found [LOOK FOR SAMPLE POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR STATE AND HYPERLINK]. You would need to review the documents yourself, or speak to a lawyer in STATE about this. You can find free and paid lawyers in STATE on our website.

I also found [LOOK FOR INFORMATION ABOUT REVOKING POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR STATE AND HYPERLINK] that may be useful to you. To “revoke” something, as you may know, is to basically cancel it so that it would no longer have any legal effect.

Please note that WomensLaw is not affiliated with these resources, and cannot vouch for them. You may want to confirm this information with a lawyer.

In general, if a principal on a power of attorney believes the agent is violating his/her duties as power of attorney for his/her own benefit, the agent may be civilly liable for any loss to the principal. This generally means that the principal could sue the agent in civil court to try to get back any “damages,” or losses suffered in the form of money from the agent.

You can see more about suing an abuser in civil court on our website. This page does not specifically have information about suing someone for violating a power of attorney, but it does have some information about civil suits generally and about finding a lawyer for a civil suit that may be useful.

In some cases, it may be possible for an agent to break the law when s/he violates his/her duties as power of attorney. For instance, an agent could commit theft or some other crime in the course of his/her actions. If a person believes a crime has been committed, s/he may call the police to make a report.

Usually, when a person makes a criminal report, the police will listen to the victim and take a look at whatever evidence s/he has. If the police believe that a crime has been committed, they can make an arrest or if they are unsure whether or not there is enough evidence to arrest, they can bring the case to the prosecutor in the county where the crime took place. The prosecutor can then decide if there’s enough evidence to go forward with a criminal case.

You may also want to read our pages on financial abuse, in case it is useful.