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

Montana publishes a state form with one blank box that overrides nearly every default on it. A Montana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney gives an agent authority over your financial and property affairs and shuts that authority down if you lose capacity. Part 3 of chapter 31 in Title 72 of the Montana Code Annotated is the Uniform Power of Attorney Act as Montana enacted it, and section 72-31-353 sets out the form.

The signing rules are brief. The form is where the detail lives.

How You Sign It

You sign the document, or someone signs your name in your conscious presence at your direction. Acknowledge that signature before a notary public, or another individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments, and it is presumed genuine. Section 72-31-305 covers both points, and no witnesses are called for.

Durability Is the Starting Point

Your authority survives your incapacity unless the document says in terms that your incapacity ends it. That is where section 72-31-304 begins. The state form makes the same point in plainer language, telling you that your agent will be able to act with respect to your property whether or not you are able to act for yourself.

The Form Prints a Limit You Did Not Write

Under the heading Limitation on Agent’s Authority, the form states that an agent who is not your ancestor, spouse or descendant may not use your property to benefit the agent, or a person to whom the agent owes an obligation of support, unless you have included that authority in the Special Instructions. That restriction sits on the page whether or not you think about it.

Because almost every default on the Montana form is overridden there, and the incapacity limit is one of them. Read the form’s own Important Information and count how many times the phrase appears.

Your agent’s authority continues until you die or revoke it, or the agent resigns or cannot act, unless you specify otherwise. Your agent is entitled to reasonable compensation unless you state otherwise in the Special Instructions. The form provides for one agent, and if you want a coagent you name them in the Special Instructions, where you also say whether they must act together. The document is effective immediately unless you state otherwise there. And the self-benefit limitation above is lifted only from that box.

So for a Montana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney, Special Instructions is where the sentence terminating the document on your incapacity belongs. Write it there, in the language section 72-31-304 asks for, rather than tucking it into a margin somewhere else on the form.

One more default is worth planning around. The form warns that if your agent is unable or unwilling to act for you, your power of attorney will end unless you have named a successor agent. Montana gives you slots for a successor and a second successor. Use them.

1. Enter your details and your agent’s name, address and telephone number.
2. Name a successor agent, and a second successor, so the document does not simply end if your first choice steps back.
3. Initial only the subjects of general authority you mean to grant, from Real Property through Taxes, or initial All Preceding Subjects.
4. Write the incapacity limit into Special Instructions, tracking section 72-31-304.
5. Add any coagent, any change to compensation, and any effective date there too.
6. Nominate a conservator or guardian if you want a say in that.
7. Sign and date the form, and print your name, address and telephone number.
8. Take the form to a notary public, who completes the acknowledgment block and seals it.

A complete Montana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney shows:

• Your name, address and telephone number, and your agent’s
• A successor agent, and a second successor
• The subjects of general authority you initialed, and nothing else
• Special Instructions carrying the incapacity limit and any end date
• Any conservator or guardian nomination
• Your signature, the date, and the notary’s acknowledgment