Free South Dakota Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney Form

South Dakota adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act in 2020 but did not take its durability rule, and that catches people out. A South Dakota Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney gives an agent authority over your financial affairs and simply leaves out the wording that would carry it past your incapacity. The Act sits at chapter 59-12 of the Codified Laws.

One requirement is strict and the other runs opposite to what most guidance about uniform-act states will tell you.

Durability Comes From Set Words

Section 59-12-3 keeps the older approach. Your document is durable where it contains the words that the power of attorney shall not be affected by disability of the principal, or that it shall become effective upon the disability of the principal, or similar words showing you intend the authority to be exercisable despite your later disability. Leave those out and the document is not durable.

The Notary Is Not Optional

Section 59-12-4 covers execution, and notarization sits inside it as a requirement rather than as a way of earning a presumption. You can tell from the exemption: section 59-12-4.1 exempts one narrow case, a power of attorney for a vehicle title being transferred to an insurer, from the notarization requirements under section 59-12-4, and allows an electronic signature there. Carving out an exception only makes sense where there is a rule to carve out of.

A State Form, and a Label

Section 59-12-41 publishes a statutory form. The chapter also defines a South Dakota compliant power of attorney as one signed by the principal, substantially in the form provided in section 59-12-41, and acknowledged before a notary public or other individual authorized to take acknowledgments. Someone who accepts such a document in good faith, without actual knowledge that the signature is not genuine, may rely on it as valid.

Because South Dakota took the Act but not its most quoted rule. In most states that adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, a power of attorney is durable unless it expressly says it ends on incapacity, so the drafting job is to write a limit in. South Dakota reversed that. Under section 59-12-3 durability is something your document has to claim in set words, so a South Dakota Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney is the one that stays quiet.

The practical risk is a template built for a neighboring uniform-act state. Such a form will usually carry durability wording as standard, on the assumption that you would delete it if you wanted the document to end. Drop that into South Dakota and you have made exactly the document you were trying to avoid.

Section 59-12-9 is worth reading alongside it. Among the events it lists, the execution of a power of attorney does not revoke one you executed earlier unless the new document says the previous power of attorney is revoked, or that all other powers of attorney are revoked. Signing a short-term document does not tidy away an older broad one.

1. Name your agent and any successor, and set out the authority you are granting.
2. Keep the section 59-12-3 durability wording out of the document entirely.
3. Read the finished draft once more looking for any sentence about disability or incapacity that should not be there.
4. Add an end date, or the task whose completion closes the authority.
5. Say whether any earlier power of attorney is revoked.
6. Sign it yourself, or direct another individual to sign your name while you are consciously present.
7. Have the signature acknowledged before a notary public or other individual authorized to take acknowledgments.

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

• Your name and address, and your agent’s
• Any successor agent
• The authority granted, itemized
• No durability wording anywhere in the document
• An end date or defined task
• A statement about any earlier power of attorney
• Your signature and the notarial acknowledgment