Free Wisconsin Durable Power of Attorney Form

A Wisconsin durable power of attorney appoints an agent to act on your property and financial affairs, and the authority carries through your incapacity. Chapter 244 of the Statutes, the Uniform Power of Attorney for Finances and Property, governs it.

Durability comes free. Section 244.04 makes a power of attorney created under the chapter durable unless it expressly provides that your incapacity terminates it.

Section 244.02 puts the same point in the definitions, describing a durable power of attorney as one that is not terminated by the principal’s incapacity.

Section 244.05 sets the rule for a Wisconsin durable power of attorney, and one word in it is easy to miss.

You must sign the power of attorney yourself. Alternatively an individual aged 18 or older may sign your name, but only at your express direction and in your physical presence.

That phrase matters. Many states accept signing in the principal’s conscious presence, which is a looser test, whereas Wisconsin asks for physical presence.

Acknowledgment then supplies the evidence. Section 244.05 presumes your signature genuine, or the signature of someone signing on your behalf, once you acknowledge the document before a notarial officer authorized under chapter 140 to take acknowledgments.

This is unusual enough that it is worth knowing exists, even if you never use it. Section 244.05 sets out a remote witnessing procedure built around a supervising attorney.

The signing happens in view. You, or an individual aged 18 or older signing at your express direction and in your physical presence, sign in a manner that allows each remote witness and the supervising attorney to see the execution.

Then the paperwork travels. The signed original goes to the supervising attorney by hand, mail, or courier within a reasonable time, while a legible copy goes to each remote witness, who signs it as a witness and returns it to the supervising attorney.

The attorney then certifies what happened. Section 244.05 calls for an affidavit of compliance recording your name and address, where you stood in the state when you signed, where each remote witness stood, how the attorney confirmed identity, and your declaration that you are 18 or older and signing voluntarily.

Coagents act on their own here. Under section 244.11, where you designate two or more people as coagents, each may exercise authority independently unless the document provides otherwise.

A newer document does not cancel an older one. Section 244.10 says executing a power of attorney leaves an earlier one standing unless the new document states that the previous one is revoked, or that all other powers of attorney are revoked.

Non-durable documents get a safety net. Section 244.10 also provides that incapacity under a power of attorney which is not durable does not terminate it as to an agent or other person who acts in good faith without actual knowledge of the incapacity.

Your Wisconsin durable power of attorney should name you and your agent, describe the authority granted, and add a successor agent so the document survives a change of circumstances.

Say whether coagents must act together, and say whether the new document revokes anything earlier. Both defaults run the opposite way from what people usually assume.

Then sign in your own hand, or have someone sign in your physical presence at your express direction, and acknowledge the document before a notarial officer.