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

Virginia protects the people who accept this document more strongly than most states, which matters when the document is one designed to end. A Virginia Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney gives an agent authority over your financial affairs and expressly terminates it on your incapacity. The Uniform Power of Attorney Act sits at chapter 16 of Title 64.2 of the Code of Virginia and has governed documents executed here since July 1, 2010.

Four things, and the last one explains why the notary matters more than the statute makes it sound.

Say That It Ends at Incapacity

Section 64.2-1602 is a single sentence, and it begins from durability: a document made under the chapter stays durable unless it expressly provides for termination on the principal’s incapacity. Silence produces a durable document, so the express provision is the whole job.

Signing

Section 64.2-1603 asks for your signature, or a signature made in your conscious presence by another individual you direct to sign your name, and treats a signature as presumed genuine where you acknowledge it before a notary public or other individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments. Virginia requires no witnesses for a financial power of attorney.

Which Documents the Act Covers

Section 64.2-1604 provides that a power of attorney executed in the Commonwealth on or after July 1, 2010 is valid if its execution complies with section 64.2-1603. Documents signed before that date are judged by the law in force at the time.

What Acknowledged Means

Section 64.2-1617 defines it for its own purposes and for section 64.2-1618: acknowledged means verified before a notary public or other individual authorized to take acknowledgments. That definition is doing more work than it appears to, as the next section explains.

Because section 64.2-1617 attaches a powerful protection to an acknowledged document, and that protection runs against you rather than for you.

Under that section, a person who in good faith accepts an acknowledged power of attorney signed in accordance with section 64.2-1603, without actual knowledge that the document is void, invalid or terminated, that the agent’s authority is void, invalid or terminated, or that the agent is exceeding or improperly exercising that authority, may rely on the power of attorney as if it were genuine, valid and still in effect, as if the agent’s authority were genuine, valid and still in effect, and as if the agent had not exceeded and had properly exercised the authority.

Read the phrase still in effect again. A Virginia Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney is a document built to stop, and this provision protects a third party who honors it after it has stopped, provided they did not actually know. That is a good reason to tell banks and anyone else holding a copy the moment the document ends, rather than assuming the ending speaks for itself.

The section carves out one case. The protection does not apply to an acknowledged power of attorney that contains a forged signature of the principal.

1. Enter your details and your agent’s, and name a successor agent.
2. Describe the authority granted, keeping it inside what the errand actually needs.
3. Add the express provision terminating the document on your incapacity, as section 64.2-1602 requires.
4. Name an end date or the task whose completion closes the authority.
5. Put your signature on it, or direct someone to sign your name while you watch.
6. Acknowledge the signature before a notary public, which is what makes the document acknowledged for the purposes of section 64.2-1617.
7. Keep a list of everyone who receives a copy, so you can tell them when it ends.

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

• Your name and address, and your agent’s
• Any successor agent
• The authority granted, itemized
• The express provision terminating it on your incapacity
• An end date or defined task
• Your signature and the notarial acknowledgment