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Attorney Yvette E Taylor

Power of Attorney – Does not permit your Agent to Make your Will.

On Behalf of | Nov 2, 2011 | Firm News |


One of my clients recently posed a question regarding the General Power of Attorney.  She serves as Agent under her mother’s General Power of Attorney.  Her mother is now unable to handle any of her affairs.  She does not have the capacity to make a Will which she never got around to doing.

Can her daughter make a Will for her mother?  Quite simply the power of attorney would not allow the daughter to make a Will for her mother.  Only the person making the Will can have one created for them.  If her mother still had capacity to make the Will but was unable to sign the Will, then many jurisdictions permit proxy signatures — someone signing for the testator.

Therefore, though the daughter could provide a proxy signature, she could not handle the whole thing, from development to execution. That would effectively make the document her Will, and not her mother’s.

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