Free Arkansas Durable Power of Attorney Form

An Arkansas durable power of attorney is a written document appointing an agent to act for you on financial and property matters, with authority that outlasts your incapacity. Arkansas builds that in: under Ark. Code Ann. § 28-68-104, a power of attorney created under the chapter is durable unless it expressly provides that it terminates on the principal’s incapacity.

Arkansas adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act in 2011, and § 28-68-106 applies these rules to documents executed in the state on or after January 1, 2012.

The formalities are light. The care goes into what the document says and where it ends up.

Signing

Ark. Code Ann. § 28-68-105 requires the document to be signed by you, or signed in your conscious presence by another individual you direct to sign your name. The chapter sets no witness requirement for a financial power of attorney.

Acknowledgment

The same section provides that a signature is presumed genuine once the principal acknowledges it before a notary public or another individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments.

Durability

Nothing extra is needed. Because § 28-68-104 makes durability the default, you only have to write something if you want the opposite — a document that ends at incapacity.

Section 28-68-105 does not make an acknowledgment a condition of validity — it makes an acknowledged signature a presumed genuine one. In day-to-day use, that distinction rarely helps. Banks and title companies lean on the presumption, and an unacknowledged document cannot be recorded at all.

So treat notarization as part of building your Arkansas durable power of attorney rather than an optional extra, particularly where real estate is involved.

If your agent may buy, sell, or mortgage real estate for you, the document usually needs to be on record in the county where the property sits. Ark. Code Ann. § 14-15-402(a) makes it the recorder’s duty to record powers of attorney concerning land, provided they are proved or acknowledged according to law. In Arkansas counties, the circuit clerk’s office fills the recorder role.

Section 14-15-402(b)(1) sets the formatting the recorder will check before accepting a document:

1. Print on 8.5 by 11 inch paper.
2. Leave a 2.5 inch margin at the top right of the first page and a 2.5 inch margin at the bottom of the last page.
3. Leave 0.5 inch margins on the sides and bottoms of all pages.
4. Reserve space at the top right of the first page for the recorder’s file mark.
5. Include the title of the document and the names of the parties where applicable.
6. Have the document acknowledged, and make sure every page is legible.

Recording fees are set locally and change from time to time, so confirm the current amount with the circuit clerk’s office before you go. Ten Arkansas counties are split into two judicial districts, so check which office covers your property.

Arkansas publishes an optional statutory power of attorney form at Ark. Code Ann. § 28-68-301 and an optional agent’s certification at § 28-68-302. Neither is required, and § 28-68-303 rounds out the same subchapter of forms.

The certification form is the one most people overlook. It lets your agent certify under penalty of perjury that you are alive, that you have not revoked the document, that any triggering event has occurred, and, if the agent is a successor, that the prior agent can no longer serve.

Whichever format you choose, an Arkansas durable power of attorney should identify you and your agent, name a successor, list the subject areas the agent may act on, spell out any power that needs a specific grant, and state when the authority begins. Complex situations — a family business, property in several states, or a beneficiary with special needs — are worth reviewing with a local attorney first.