Free Louisiana Limited Power of Attorney Form

Louisiana calls this document a mandate, and it sits in the Civil Code rather than in a power of attorney act. You are the principal, and the person you appoint is the mandatary. A Louisiana limited power of attorney grants authority over one act or a short list of acts.

Because Louisiana is a civil law state, its rules read differently from the rest of the country. Here’s what the Code asks for.

The Form Follows the Act

A mandate needs no particular form. However, when the law prescribes a certain form for an act, a mandate authorizing that act must be in that same form (La. Civ. Code art. 2993). So the formality depends on the job rather than on the mandate itself.

Property Authority Must Be Express

Authority to alienate, acquire, encumber, or lease a thing must be given expressly. Helpfully, neither the property nor its location needs a specific description (art. 2996). In other words, the grant must be clear even though the asset description can stay general.

Seven More Acts Need Express Words

Authority must also be given expressly to (art. 2997):

• Make an inter vivos donation, outright or into a trust or other custodial arrangement
• Accept or renounce a succession
• Contract a loan, acknowledge or remit a debt, or become a surety
• Draw or endorse promissory notes and negotiable instruments
• Enter a compromise or refer a matter to arbitration
• Make health care decisions, such as surgery, medical expenses, nursing home residency, and medication
• Prevent or limit reasonable communication between you and a close relative or another person with a strong attachment to you

A General Grant Doesn’t Reach Them

Those lists are the heart of Louisiana drafting. A broad mandate that never mentions a listed act does not authorize it, however sweeping the rest of the wording sounds. As a result, a Louisiana limited power of attorney is often longer than people expect, because each intended power needs naming.

Specific enough to name the act. Article 2996 removes the need to describe the property in detail, so “authority to sell immovable property in Orleans Parish” can work without a legal description. Even so, naming the property gives a notary, title company, or bank less to question.

For the acts in article 2997, the wording has to grant each one you intend. Listing five and forgetting the sixth leaves your mandatary without it.

Also think about where the document will be used. Since the required form tracks the underlying act, the same mandate can be fine for a bank errand and short of what a property transfer needs.

Start from the act you want done, then work backwards. Here’s the sequence:

1. Identify the act, such as one sale, one loan, or one succession filing.
2. Check what form the law requires for that act, since your mandate must match it.
3. Add express authority for anything in articles 2996 and 2997 that the job needs.
4. Name your mandatary, with an address.
5. Set an end date or ending event.
6. Sign in the form the act requires, with the notary your transaction calls for.

Your Louisiana limited power of attorney should read as a precise grant, not a broad one. Include:

• Your name as principal and your mandatary’s name
• The act authorized, in plain terms
• Express authority to alienate, acquire, encumber, or lease, if the job needs it
• Express authority for any article 2997 act you intend to grant
• The date it begins and the date or event that ends it
• Signatures in the form the underlying act requires

Because the authority comes entirely from the terms you write, the wording carries the whole grant. So for a significant transaction, a Louisiana notary or attorney is worth the visit.