The use of the following form, or one which substantially conforms to the following form, in the creation of a power of attorney is lawful, and, when used, and executed in accordance with subdivision one of section 5-1501 B of this title, it shall be construed as a statutory short form power of attorney in accordance with the provisions of this title; provided however, that any section indicated as “Optional” which is not used may be omitted and replaced by the words “Intentionally Omitted”:

“POWER OF ATTORNEY

NEW YORK STATUTORY SHORT FORM

(a) CAUTION TO THE PRINCIPAL: Your Power of Attorney is an important document. As the “principal,” you give the person whom you choose (your “agent”) authority to spend your money and sell or dispose of your property during your lifetime without telling you. You do not lose your authority to act even though you have given your agent similar authority.

When your agent exercises this authority, he or she must act according to any instructions you have provided or, where there are no specific instructions, in your best interest. “Important Information for the

Agent” at the end of this document describes your agent’s responsibilities.

Your agent can act on your behalf only after signing the Power of

Attorney before a notary public.

You can request information from your agent at any time. If you are revoking a prior Power of Attorney, you should provide written notice of the revocation to your prior agent(s) and to any third parties who may have acted upon it, including the financial institutions where your accounts are located.

You can revoke or terminate your Power of Attorney at any time for any reason as long as you are of sound mind. If you are no longer of sound mind, a court can remove an agent for acting improperly.

Your agent cannot make health care decisions for you. You may execute a “Health Care Proxy” to do this.

The law governing Powers of Attorney is contained in the New York

General Obligations Law, Article 5, Title 15. This law is available at a law library, or online through the New York State Senate or Assembly websites, www.nysenate.gov or www.nyassembly.gov.

If there is anything about this document that you do not understand, you should ask a lawyer of your own choosing to explain it to you.

Need help with a review of a power of attorney? Chat with an attorney and protect your rights.

Terms Used In N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1513

  • Agent: means a person granted authority to act as attorney-in-fact for the principal under a power of attorney, and includes the original agent and any co-agent or successor agent. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Compensation: means reasonable compensation authorized to be paid to the agent from assets of the principal for services actually rendered by the agent pursuant to the authority granted in a power of attorney. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • Monitor: means a person appointed in the power of attorney who has the authority to request, receive, and seek to compel the agent to provide a record of all receipts, disbursements, and transactions entered into by the agent on behalf of the principal. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
  • Person: means an individual, whether acting for himself or herself, or as a fiduciary or as an official of any legal, governmental or commercial entity (including, but not limited to, any such entity identified in this subdivision), corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, government agency, government entity, government instrumentality, public corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
  • Power of attorney: means a written document, other than a document referred to in section 5-1501C of this title, by which a principal with capacity designates an agent to act on his or her behalf and includes both a statutory short form power of attorney and a non-statutory power of attorney. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
  • Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. Source: OCC
  • Principal: means an individual who is eighteen years of age or older, acting for himself or herself and not as a fiduciary or as an official of any legal, governmental or commercial entity, who executes a power of attorney. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
  • Sign: means to place any memorandum, mark or sign, written, printed, stamped, photographed, engraved or otherwise upon an instrument or writing, or to use an electronic signature as that term is defined in subdivision three of section three hundred two of the state technology law, with the intent to execute the instrument, writing or electronic record. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
  • Third party: means a financial institution or person other than a principal or an agent. See N.Y. General Obligations Law 5-1501
(b) DESIGNATION OF AGENT(S):

I, _______________________________________________, hereby appoint: name and address of principal

_____________________________________________________as my agent(s) name(s) and address(es) of agent(s)

If you designate more than one agent above and you do not initial the statement below, they must act together.

( ) My agents may act SEPARATELY.
(c) DESIGNATION OF SUCCESSOR AGENT(S): (OPTIONAL)

If any agent designated above is unable or unwilling to serve, I appoint as my successor agent(s):

_______________________________________________________________

name(s) and address(es) of successor agent(s)

If you do not initial the statement below, successor agents designated above must act together.

( )My successor agents may act SEPARATELY.

You may provide for specific succession rules in this section. Insert specific succession provisions here:

(d) This POWER OF ATTORNEY shall not be affected by my subsequent incapacity unless I have stated otherwise below, under “Modifications”.
(e) This POWER OF ATTORNEY DOES NOT REVOKE any Powers of Attorney previously executed by me unless I have stated otherwise below, under “Modifications.”
(f) GRANT OF AUTHORITY:

To grant your agent some or all of the authority below, either

(1) Initial the bracket at each authority you grant, or
(2) Write or type the letters for each authority you grant on the blank line at (P), and initial the bracket at (P). If you initial (P), you do not need to initial the other lines.

I grant authority to my agent(s) with respect to the following subjects as defined in sections 5-1502 A through 5-1502N of the New

York General Obligations Law:

( )

(A) real estate transactions;
( )

(B) chattel and goods transactions;
( )

(C) bond, share, and commodity transactions;
( )

(D) banking transactions;
( )

(E)business operating transactions;
( )

(F) insurance transactions;
( )

(G) estate transactions;
( )

(H)claims and litigation;
( )

(I) personal and family maintenance. If you grant your agent this authority, it will allow the agent to make gifts that you customarily have made to individuals, including the agent, and charitable organizations. The total amount of all such gifts in any one calendar year cannot exceed five thousand dollars;
( )

(J)benefits from governmental programs or civil or military service;
( )

(K) financial matters related to health care; records, reports, and statements;
( )

(L) retirement benefit transactions;
( )

(M) tax matters;
( )

(N) all other matters;
( )

(O)full and unqualified authority to my agent(s) to delegate any or all of the foregoing powers to any person or persons whom my agent(s) select;
( )

(P) EACH of the matters identified by the following letters______.

You need not initial the other lines if you initial line (P).

(g) CERTAIN GIFT TRANSACTIONS: (OPTIONAL)

In order to authorize your agent to make gifts in excess of an annual total of $5,000 for all gifts described in (I) of the grant of authority section of this document (under personal and family maintenance), and/or to make changes to interest in your property, you must expressly grant that authorization in the Modifications section below. If you wish to authorize your agent to make gifts to himself or herself, you must expressly grant such authorization in the Modifications section below.

Granting such authority to your agent gives your agent the authority to take actions which could significantly reduce your property and/or change how your property is distributed at your death. Your choice to grant such authority should be discussed with a lawyer.

( )I grant my agent authority to make gifts in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Modifications that supplement this Statutory Power of Attorney.
(h) MODIFICATIONS: (OPTIONAL)

In this section, you may make additional provisions, including, but not limited to, language to limit or supplement authority granted to your agent, language to grant your agent the specific authority to make gifts to himself or herself, and/or language to grant your agent the specific authority to make other gift transactions and/or changes to interests in your property. Your agent is entitled to be reimbursed from your assets for reasonable expenses incurred on your behalf. In this section, you may make additional provisions if you ALSO wish your agent(s) to be compensated from your assets for services rendered on your behalf, and you may define “reasonable compensation.”

(i) DESIGNATION OF MONITOR(S): (OPTIONAL)

If you wish to appoint monitor(s), initial and fill in the section below:

( )I wish to designate ______________________, whose address(es) is (are) ____________________________________________________________, as monitor(s). Upon the request of the monitor(s), my agent(s) must provide the monitor(s) with a copy of the power of attorney and a record of all transactions done or made on my behalf. Third parties holding records of such transactions shall provide the records to the monitor(s) upon request.
(j) COMPENSATION OF AGENT(S):

Your agent is entitled to be reimbursed from your assets for reasonable expenses incurred on your behalf. If you ALSO wish your agent(s) to be compensated from your assets for services rendered on your behalf, and/or you wish to define “reasonable compensation”, you may do so above, under “Modifications”.

(k) ACCEPTANCE BY THIRD PARTIES: I agree to indemnify the third party for any claims that may arise against the third party because of reliance on this Power of Attorney. I understand that any termination of this Power of Attorney, whether the result of my revocation of the Power of Attorney or otherwise, is not effective as to a third party until the third party has actual notice or knowledge of the termination.
(l) TERMINATION: This Power of Attorney continues until I revoke it or it is terminated by my death or other event described in section 5-1511 of the General Obligations Law.

Section 5-1511 of the General Obligations Law describes the manner in which you may revoke your Power of Attorney, and the events which terminate the Power of Attorney.

(m) SIGNATURE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT: In Witness Whereof I have hereunto signed my name on ___________,20___.

PRINCIPAL signs here: ==__________________________________________ (acknowledgment)

(n) SIGNATURES OF WITNESSES:

By signing as a witness, I acknowledge that the principal signed the Power of Attorney in my presence and in the presence of the other witness, or that the principal acknowledged to me that the principal’s signature was affixed by him or her or at his or her direction. I also acknowledge that the principal has stated that this Power of Attorney reflects his or her wishes and that he or she has signed it voluntarily. I am not named herein as an agent or as a permissible recipient of gifts.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________

________________________________

Signature of Witness 1

Signature of Witness 2

_______________________________

_____________________________

Date

Date

_______________________________

_____________________________

Print name

Print name

_______________________________

_____________________________

Address

Address

_______________________________

_____________________________

City, State, Zip Code

City, State, Zip Code

(o) IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THE AGENT:

When you accept the authority granted under this Power of Attorney, a special legal relationship is created between you and the principal.

This relationship imposes on you legal responsibilities that continue until you resign or the Power of Attorney is terminated or revoked. You must:

(1) act according to any instructions from the principal, or, where there are no instructions, in the principal’s best interest;
(2) avoid conflicts that would impair your ability to act in the principal’s best interest;
(3) keep the principal’s property separate and distinct from any assets you own or control, unless otherwise permitted by law;
(4) keep a record of all transactions conducted for the principal or keep all receipts of payments and transactions conducted for the principal; and
(5) disclose your identity as an agent whenever you act for the principal by writing or printing the principal’s name and signing your own name as “agent” in either of the following manners: (Principal’s Name) by (Your Signature) as Agent, or (your signature) as Agent for (Principal’s Name).

You may not use the principal’s assets to benefit yourself or anyone else or make gifts to yourself or anyone else unless the principal has specifically granted you that authority in the modifications section of this document or a Non-Statutory Power of Attorney. If you have that authority, you must act according to any instructions of the principal or, where there are no such instructions, in the principal’s best interest. You may resign by giving written notice to the principal and to any co-agent, successor agent, monitor if one has been named in this document, or the principal’s guardian if one has been appointed. If there is anything about this document or your responsibilities that you do not understand, you should seek legal advice.

Liability of agent:

The meaning of the authority given to you is defined in New York’s

General Obligations Law, Article 5, Title 15. If it is found that you have violated the law or acted outside the authority granted to you in the Power of Attorney, you may be liable under the law for your violation.

(p) AGENT’S SIGNATURE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF APPOINTMENT:

It is not required that the principal and the agent(s) sign at the same time, nor that multiple agents sign at the same time.

I/we, ___________________________________________, have read the foregoing Power of Attorney. I am/we are the person(s) identified therein as agent(s) for the principal named therein.

I/we acknowledge my/our legal responsibilities.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto signed my name on ________________20_____.

Agent(s) sign(s) here:==__________________________________________

(acknowledgment(s))

(q) SUCCESSOR AGENT’S SIGNATURE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF APPOINTMENT:

It is not required that the principal and the SUCCESSOR agent(s), if any, sign at the same time, nor that multiple SUCCESSOR agents sign at the same time. Furthermore, successor agents can not use this power of attorney unless the agent(s) designated above is/are unable or unwilling to serve.

I/we, ___________________________________________, have read the foregoing Power of Attorney. I am/we are the person(s) identified therein as

SUCCESSOR agent(s) for the principal named therein.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto signed my name on ________________20_____.

Successor Agent(s) sign(s) here:==______________________________________

(acknowledgment(s))”