Service · Power of Attorney

Power of Attorney Services in Granite Shoals, TX

A durable power of attorney names someone you trust to handle your finances — pay your bills, sign your taxes, manage your business — if you become unable to do it yourself. Without one, your family has to ask a court to appoint a guardian.

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If you cannot, someone must

Naming the person who acts when you cannot.

A power of attorney is a written authorization for someone else — your agent, sometimes called an attorney-in-fact — to make decisions on your behalf. The most important kind, and the one we draft most often, is the durable power of attorney. The word durable means the document continues to work even after you become incapacitated. Without that durability clause, the moment you lose the capacity to act for yourself, the document loses its power to authorize anyone else.

There are two POAs every Texas adult should have. The first is a Texas Statutory Durable Power of Attorney for financial decisions — paying bills, accessing accounts, signing tax returns, dealing with the IRS, managing real estate, running a business. The second is a Medical Power of Attorney for healthcare decisions, which we cover in detail on the Healthcare Directives page. Together they cover both halves of what your family will need authority over if you are unconscious in a hospital or unable to make decisions for any reason.

The three powers we draft

Different authority for different parts of your life.

Most Texas adults benefit from all three of these. Each one covers a domain the others do not.

Statutory Durable Financial POA

Texas Estates Code §752. Authorizes your agent to handle every category of financial decision — banking, real estate, taxes, retirement, business operations. The default broad financial authority document.

Medical Power of Attorney

Texas Health & Safety Code §166. Names the one person who can make medical decisions for you when you cannot, including consent to and refusal of treatment. Always paired with HIPAA authorization.

Limited or special POA

Narrow authority for a single transaction — selling a specific property, signing closing documents while traveling, managing a single account. Used alongside the broad documents, not as a substitute.

When the POA activates

Springing vs. immediate effect.

Both work. The right choice depends on how much you trust your agent today versus how much you value the safety of conditioning their authority on a doctor's certification.

Option A

Immediate effective POA

Authority starts on signing

Agent can act the moment you sign
No medical certification required to activate
Faster in emergencies — no waiting for doctor's letter
Banks and brokerages accept without question
Requires full trust in the named agent — you are sharing real authority right now
Used most often with a spouse or adult child you trust completely

Option B

Springing POA

Authority starts on incapacity

Requires written certification of incapacity by your physician
Agent cannot act until that certification is in hand
Slower in emergencies — doctor visit and letter first
Some banks have historically resisted springing POAs
Useful when the agent is a more distant relative or professional
Often paired with HIPAA so the doctor can release the certification

Powers you can grant

Specific authority you choose to enable.

The Texas statutory form lists categories of authority. You initial each one you want your agent to have. Below are the most common ones — broader authority is usually better, but every choice is yours.

Real property transactions
Buy, sell, mortgage, lease, manage real estate on your behalf.
Tangible personal property
Vehicles, equipment, furnishings, valuables.
Banking and financial institutions
Access accounts, write checks, transfer funds, manage CDs and brokerage accounts.
Business operations
Run an LLC, sign on behalf of a partnership, manage business accounts.
Insurance and annuities
Manage policies, change beneficiaries, file claims, surrender annuities.
Estate and trust transactions
Receive distributions, manage trust property, deal with executors.
Tax matters
Sign returns, communicate with IRS, contest assessments. Requires a separate IRS Form 2848 for federal tax matters.
Retirement plan transactions
Roll over IRAs, take distributions, change investment elections, name beneficiaries.

The Texas statutory form

Why we use the statutory document, not a generic POA.

Texas Estates Code Chapter 752 provides a statutory durable power of attorney form that every Texas bank, credit union, brokerage, title company, and IRS office is required by statute to accept (with limited grounds for refusal). Using this form removes most of the friction that makes generic POAs fail at the worst possible moment — when a bank manager looks at a non-standard document, gets nervous, and tells your family they need to come back with something else.

The form is a checklist of powers. You initial each category you want your agent to have, you sign in front of a notary, and the document becomes legally effective. We walk you through every category in the consultation and explain what each one actually authorizes. Some clients want broad authority — every category checked. Others want narrower authority — financial accounts and real estate only, say, with no power over the family business. Either is fine; both produce a valid Texas-compliant document.

We also pair every financial POA with a HIPAA authorization, even though HIPAA primarily affects the medical POA. The reason: if your financial POA is springing — meaning it activates only on certification of incapacity — your agent needs HIPAA authority to obtain that certification from your doctor. Without it, the certification cannot be released, which means the springing POA never springs. Stacking the HIPAA authorization on top closes that gap.

Finally, we date and version every POA we draft. Banks occasionally balk at a POA that is more than a few years old, on the theory that something might have changed. We recommend reissuing your POAs every five to seven years even if nothing has changed, just to keep the documents fresh and easy to accept on first presentation.

POA FAQ

What clients ask about powers of attorney.

An agent has fiduciary duties under Texas law — they must act in your interest, avoid self-dealing, and keep records. Violations are civilly and criminally actionable. The practical safeguard is choosing the right agent in the first place. We talk through that choice carefully, suggest backup agents, and structure the document with co-agents or oversight where the situation calls for it.

At your death, automatically. A POA is a delegation of your authority — when you pass, you have no authority left to delegate, so the document expires. From that point forward, your executor (under the will) or your successor trustee (under the trust) is the one acting. Your POA also ends if you revoke it in writing, or if a court overrides it.

Texas law requires acceptance with very limited grounds for refusal — and we have not had a bank refuse a properly executed statutory POA in many years. If a bank does push back, Texas Estates Code §751.211 specifically authorizes attorney general enforcement against banks that improperly refuse. In practice, presenting the document with a recent date and a certified copy resolves any hesitation.

No. Signing a POA does not strip you of any authority — you can still act for yourself at any time. The POA adds your agent's authority alongside yours; it does not subtract from yours. You can also revoke the POA in writing at any time as long as you have capacity to do so.

Your family has to petition the probate court for guardianship — a public, contested process that takes months, costs thousands of dollars in legal fees, and gives the court the authority to oversee both your finances and your person. A guardianship can be necessary in some cases, but for most families it is exactly what a properly drafted POA exists to avoid.

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