Financial Power of Attorney: What 13 State Laws Require in 2026

What the table covers

The table below covers 13 states, the ones whose official statute text we could read on November 12, 2026; the other states are not listed because their official code could not be read that day. The Uniform Power of Attorney Act is a model law of the Uniform Law Commission. We count a state as a uniform-act state only where its own statute says so in its title or short-title section, and we do not give a national count of enactments because the Commission's enactment map could not be read as text.

The 13-state table: statute, durability, signing, form and refusals

Financial power of attorney law in 13 states, as of November 12, 2026 (official texts)

Source: the official statute pages of each state, read November 12, 2026 (URLs in the CSV). Washington, Florida, Iowa, South Carolina, Wyoming and Connecticut were read as whole chapters or articles; Virginia, West Virginia, Kansas and Missouri section by section; Arizona sections 14-5501 to 14-5507; Delaware subchapters I and III; Minnesota chapter 523 in full. "No statutory form" means we found none in the sections named. West Virginia's form section was not read.

Seven states do not make a power of attorney durable by default

A durable power of attorney keeps working after the principal loses capacity. The model act makes that the default, and Connecticut, Iowa, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming say so in one sentence: a power of attorney “is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity of the principal” (Virginia Code 64.2-1602; the other five use the same words, Iowa with “the power of attorney” in place of “it”).

Seven states do the opposite. Seven of the 13 states we read do not make a power of attorney durable by default. Florida's statute says a power of attorney “is durable if it contains the words” that incapacity does not end it (709.2104); Delaware (49A-104) and Minnesota (523.07) use the same structure; Kansas and Missouri require the instrument to be denominated a “durable power of attorney” and carry one of two stated sentences (58-652(a); 404.705(1)); Arizona requires “words that demonstrate the principal's intent” (14-5501(A)). The practical risk is for a parent who signed a generic form years ago: if it lacks the words, authority ends at incapacity, which is when the agent is needed (our reading).

Washington needs its own mention. The chapter is the uniform power of attorney act, in force since January 1, 2017, but section 11.125.040 provides that authority “terminates upon the incapacity of the principal unless the writing contains the words” of survival. A reader who assumes “uniform act” means durable by default would be wrong in Washington.

Effective now, or springing

Most of these statutes let a power of attorney take effect when signed or later on a future event. Washington and Virginia use the same sentence: a power of attorney “is effective when executed unless the principal provides in the power of attorney that it becomes effective at a future date or upon the occurrence of a future event or contingency” (RCW 11.125.090(1); Virginia Code 64.2-1607(A)). Florida goes the other way for powers signed after October 1, 2011: “a power of attorney is ineffective if the power of attorney provides that it is to become effective at a future date or upon the occurrence of a future event or contingency” (709.2108(3)). A Florida parent who wants the agent to act only after incapacity cannot do it by a springing clause (our reading); the agent is chosen by trust, because the power works from signing.

What a bank or broker may ask for, and how long it has

The uniform-act states give a custodian a short clock and a short list of things it may request. These are the rules for the state laws we read; they are not a description of any one custodian's own forms, which we did not read for this page.

Source: the refusal sections in the main table, read November 12, 2026. Florida's request list is section 709.2119(3).

Three details matter for a family dealing with a brokerage or an annuity company. First, the same sentence appears in Washington (11.125.200(1)(c)) and Florida (709.2120(2)): the institution may not require “an additional or different form of power of attorney for authority granted in the power of attorney presented.” Second, each state also lists reasons a bank may refuse without penalty, among them a good-faith belief that the power is not valid and a report to adult protective services; Washington's wording is “stating a good faith belief that the principal may be subject to physical or financial abuse, neglect, exploitation, or abandonment by the agent or a person acting for or with the agent.” Third, South Carolina's act does not apply to a power created on a form provided by a bank or brokerage “for use solely by the financial institution or brokerage firm” (62-8-103(4)), so a custodian's own agent form sits outside the statute and its own rules apply (our reading).

None of the sections quoted here mentions non-traded REITs, BDC shares, interval funds or DST interests. For how those issuers treat an agent, an heir or a disabled owner, see our page on death and disability repurchase rules for non-traded REITs and BDCs.

When a power of attorney is not enough

A power of attorney does not remove the court from the picture; it sits beside it. If a court later appoints a conservator, the agent keeps acting unless the court says otherwise: “The power of attorney is not terminated and the agent's authority continues, subject to the provisions of RCW 11.130.335 (1) and 11.130.435 (4), unless limited, suspended, or terminated by the court” (Washington, 11.125.080(2)); Virginia's text is nearly identical (64.2-1606(B)), and Arizona adds that “the agent is accountable to the court appointed fiduciary as well as to the principal” (14-5503(A)). In practice a court-supervised conservatorship or guardianship is the route when there is no valid power of attorney, when it lacks the survival words in a state that requires them, when a custodian will not accept it, or when family members contest it (our reading). A power of attorney also ends at death; the house and accounts then pass under the will, a trust, a beneficiary designation or a transfer on death deed, or through probate. Our page on trust versus will covers which document controls which asset.

What a reader can do with this

• Check the survival words first. In Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Washington, read the document for the words the statute names; in Connecticut, Iowa, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, check that it does not say it ends at incapacity.
• Match the signing to the state. Florida needs two witnesses and a notary, Arizona and Delaware a witness and a notary, Connecticut two witnesses; where a notary is optional (Virginia, Wyoming, Connecticut), the bank-refusal rules in these states are written for an acknowledged power, so a notarized signature is the safer record (our reading of the section headings).
• Take the document to the custodian before it is needed. The statutes above set a clock only once an acknowledged power is presented; ask each custodian whether it wants its own agent form as well and keep the answer in writing.
• Do not rely on this table for a state it does not list, or for a power signed in another state: Washington's section 11.125.060(3) says a power signed elsewhere is valid there if, when executed, it complied with the law that governs its meaning and effect or with the military power of attorney rule; check the other state's rule the same way.
• Who to ask. The document itself is a legal instrument under the law of the state where it is signed: an elder-law or estate-planning attorney licensed there drafts it and checks the witness and notary rules. How the agent's authority fits a house, retirement accounts, a brokerage account and any illiquid fund the parent holds is the part a financial adviser can weigh with the family.

More for a family handling someone else's money: what a living trust costs against statutory probate fees; how executors get letters testamentary, with court fees; small estate affidavit limits by state; how long probate takes, from the creditor claim statutes; TOD and POD accounts, including non-traded REIT and BDC shares; guardianship vs conservatorship under state law.

FAQ

Sources: Revised Code of Washington chapter 11.125; Florida Statutes 709.2101 to 709.2402; Iowa Code chapter 633B; Connecticut General Statutes chapter 15c (sections 1-350 to 1-353b); South Carolina Code 62-8-101 to 62-8-403; Code of Virginia chapter 16 of Title 64.2; West Virginia Code chapter 39B; Wyoming Statutes 3-9-101 to 3-9-403; Arizona Revised Statutes 14-5501 to 14-5507; Delaware Code Title 12, chapter 49A; Kansas Statutes Annotated 58-650 to 58-665; Minnesota Statutes chapter 523; Revised Statutes of Missouri 404.700 to 404.735, all from the official legislature pages as read on November 12, 2026 (URLs in the CSV). Uniform Law Commission, Power of Attorney Act page, read November 12, 2026.