Power of attorney
A legal document that gives another person, the agent, authority to make decisions about your money or property. The agent is a fiduciary and must act in your interest, not their own.
The CFPB explains a power of attorney as a legal document that gives someone legal authority to make decisions about the maker’s money or property, for example if they become sick or injured. The person who makes it is called the principal. The person who receives the authority is the agent, also called an attorney-in-fact. In some states the document is called a durable power of attorney.
The principal can take the agent’s authority away at any time, if they are still able to make decisions, and the agent must then stop. The agent’s authority also ends when the principal dies. It may end if a court names a guardian of property or conservator.
The agent is a fiduciary, someone named to manage money or property for another. The CFPB lists four basic duties: act only in the principal’s best interest, manage their money and property carefully, keep it separate from your own, and keep good records. Acting in their best interest includes not lending or giving their money to yourself or others. If a principal seems to have been pushed into revoking an agent’s authority, the CFPB says to talk to a trusted family member, a lawyer, or an official from adult protective services, the police or the sheriff.
Where it shows up
- Power of attorney and caregiver financial abuse · A signature that makes someone else the only person your bank will still listen to, and no stranger, no phone call, no urgency required.
Sources
- Managing Someone Else's Money: Help for agents under a power of attorney. US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The definition, the roles of principal and agent, revocation, when the agent's authority ends, and the fiduciary duties.