Free Indiana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney Form

Indiana is strict about how you take the authority back, which makes the ending as worth planning as the beginning. An Indiana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney gives an attorney in fact authority over your finances and states that the authority ends on your incapacity. Article 5 of title 30 of the Indiana Code governs it, and Indiana uses the older term attorney in fact rather than agent.

Indiana sets four conditions, and lets you choose how to satisfy the last one.

Four Things the Document Needs

To be valid it must be in writing, name an attorney in fact, give the attorney in fact the power to act on your behalf, and be signed by you or at your direction. Section 30-5-4-1 lists them. Where someone signs at your direction, the notary must state that the individual signed on your behalf at your direction.

A Notary, or Two Witnesses

Your signature has to be made either in the presence of a notary public or in the presence of witnesses. On the witness route, section 30-5-4-1.5 requires the signatures of you and at least two witnesses, for documents executed on or after March 31, 2020.

Choose Your Witnesses Carefully

Anyone competent to be a witness in Indiana may attest, and a witness’s later incapacity does not impair a document already executed. But subsection (c) of section 30-5-4-1.3 can void the whole thing: a power of attorney executed by the witness route is void if a subscribing witness has an interest in it and the document cannot be proved without that witness’s testimony or proof of their signature.

Making It Non-Durable

Except as otherwise stated in the power of attorney, a power of attorney is not terminated by your incapacity. That default is section 30-5-10-3(a), so your document has to state otherwise.

Not casually. Section 30-5-10-1(a) says that except as otherwise stated in the power of attorney, an executed power of attorney may be revoked only by a written instrument of revocation that identifies the power of attorney being revoked and is signed by you. A conversation will not do it, and neither will tearing up the original of an Indiana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney.

Subsection (b) adds the part that catches people out. A revocation is not effective unless the attorney in fact or other person has actual knowledge of it. So the instrument has to reach the people who might rely on the document, not just exist.

Subsection (c) covers recorded documents. If the power of attorney was recorded under section 30-5-3-3, the revocation must also be recorded, and it must reference the book and page or the instrument number where the original was recorded.

Section 30-5-10-2 gives you the simpler route. If the power of attorney specifies a termination date and time, it terminates at that date and time, with nothing further required.

1. Put the document in writing and name your attorney in fact.
2. Grant the powers plainly, since the document has to give the attorney in fact power to act.
3. State that the authority terminates on your incapacity, overriding section 30-5-10-3(a).
4. Specify a termination date and time if the job has a natural end.
5. Choose your route: a notary public, or at least two witnesses.
6. If you use witnesses, check none of them has an interest in the document.
7. Sign, or have someone sign at your direction with the notary recording that fact.
8. Keep the original and give your attorney in fact a copy.

A complete Indiana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney carries:

• Your name and address, and your attorney in fact’s
• A clear grant of the power to act on your behalf
• The statement ending the authority on your incapacity
• A termination date and time, if you want one
• Any successor attorney in fact
• Your signature, plus either a notarial certificate or two witness signatures