A durable power of attorney is a legal document in which one person (the principal) grants another person (the agent, sometimes called an attorney-in-fact) authority to act on their behalf in financial and property matters and where the authority continues even if the principal later becomes incapacitated and unable to manage their own affairs.
The principal decides how broad the authority is. It can cover some or all subject areas - banking, real estate, taxes, investments. It does not cover health-care decisions, which are handled through a separate medical or health-care directive. The authority lasts until the principal revokes it, dies, or a stated ending event occurs.
A durable power of attorney comes up in a range of situations, including:
