How to Sign as Power of Attorney in California

This page is written for the person who has been named as agent, which California calls an attorney-in-fact. You don’t need to be a lawyer to hold the role, and the name is misleading. The person who signed the power of attorney is the principal, and everything you do under it’s done on the principal’s behalf and under a fiduciary’s legal duties.

How do you sign as power of attorney in California?

Write the principal’s full legal name, then “by,” then your own signature and the words “attorney-in-fact” or “agent.” California law doesn’t set the wording, so any format that names the principal, shows your signature, and states your capacity works. The point is that a reader can tell the principal is the party and you’re the person signing for them.

The formats below are the ones I’d use, in order of how widely they’re accepted:

Format	Example
Principal, by agent	Margaret Alvarez, by Daniel Alvarez, her attorney-in-fact
Principal, by agent, with title after	Margaret Alvarez, by Daniel Alvarez, Attorney-in-Fact
Agent first	Daniel Alvarez, attorney-in-fact for Margaret Alvarez
Abbreviated, where a form has little room	Margaret Alvarez, by Daniel Alvarez, POA

Three signatures cause trouble. Signing only your own name leaves you as the party to the contract, which can make you personally liable. Signing only the principal’s name, as if you were the principal, can look like forgery to a bank teller and to a court. Leaving out your capacity on a deed or a loan can get the document rejected.

Check the power of attorney itself before you sign anything. Some documents say how the agent must sign, and if yours does, follow it as written. When the document is silent, ask the institution what format it wants. Banks and title companies often have their own forms and will tell you.

What should you bring when you sign?

Bring the original power of attorney or a certified copy, and your own photo identification. A third party can require you to show identification, specimens of both your signature and the principal’s, and other information reasonably needed to identify the two of you (Prob. Code § 4302). It can also require the principal’s current and permanent residence addresses.

• The original power of attorney or a certified copy.
• Your own photo identification.
• Specimens of both your signature and the principal’s signature.
• Other information reasonably needed to identify the two of you.
• The principal’s current and permanent residence addresses, if the third party asks for them.

A copy is enough if it’s certified. A California lawyer, a California notary, or an authorized public official can certify a copy by stating that they examined the original and the copy and that the copy is true and correct (Prob. Code § 4307). A certified copy has the same force as the original.

If the document affects real property, the power of attorney should be notarized so it can be recorded easily. That’s the warning California requires printed on form powers of attorney sold to the public (Prob. Code § 4128).

What does a valid California power of attorney require?

It must contain the date it was signed, carry the principal’s signature (or another adult’s signature made in the principal’s presence and at the principal’s direction), and be notarized or signed by two qualifying witnesses (Prob. Code § 4121). If any of those is missing, you may be holding a document that a bank is entitled to refuse.

A “durable” power of attorney stays effective if the principal loses capacity, and it says so in words like “This power of attorney shall not be affected by subsequent incapacity of the principal” (Prob. Code § 4124). Acts you take during the principal’s incapacity bind the principal as if the principal had capacity (Prob. Code § 4125). For the head page on the document itself, see California durable power of attorney.

What must you do as agent?

You must act with prudence, put the principal’s interest first, keep the principal’s money separate from yours, stay in touch, and keep records. California’s duties for agents run from Prob. Code § 4230 through § 4238. Each duty requires the following:

• Prudent care. Handle the principal’s property as a prudent person would handle another person’s property (Prob. Code § 4231). If you hold special skills, such as a CPA or a trust officer, you’re held to that higher standard (Prob. Code § 4237).
• Loyalty. Act solely in the principal’s interest and avoid conflicts of interest (Prob. Code § 4232). Benefiting incidentally from what you do for the principal doesn’t automatically breach the duty, but self-dealing does.
• Keep property separate. The principal’s property must be identifiable as the principal’s. Holding it in the principal’s name, or in your name as attorney-in-fact for the principal, satisfies the rule (Prob. Code § 4233).
• Communicate and follow instructions. When reasonably practicable, keep in regular contact with the principal and follow the principal’s instructions. You can disobey instructions only with court approval (Prob. Code § 4234).
• Keep records. Record every transaction you enter into for the principal (Prob. Code § 4236).
• Hand everything over at the end. When your authority ends, deliver the property and copies of your records to the right person (Prob. Code § 4238).

Being named agent doesn’t by itself obligate you to act. A person named in the document has no duty to use the authority unless they’ve agreed in writing to act, and once you start a transaction you must finish it (Prob. Code § 4230). You can resign. Under Prob. Code § 4207, an agent resigns by giving notice to the principal if the principal is competent, by giving notice to the conservator if one has been appointed, with the written agreement of a successor agent named in the power of attorney, or by court order. Resignation ends your authority (Prob. Code § 4152).

What can’t you do as agent?

You can’t do anything the power of attorney doesn’t authorize, and California bars a short list of acts unless the document expressly grants them. Even where you have general authority, the grant of a power doesn’t require or permit you to use it in a way that breaches your duties (Prob. Code § 4266).

These acts require express authority in the document (Prob. Code § 4264):

• Create, change, or revoke a trust.
• Fund with the principal’s property a trust that the principal didn’t create.
• Make or revoke a gift of the principal’s property.
• Reject, disclaim, or consent to a reduction in the principal’s share of an estate, trust, or other fund.
• Create or change survivorship interests in the principal’s property.
• Change who receives property, benefits, or contract rights on the principal’s death.
• Make a loan to yourself.

The form notice in California law adds a warning that anyone accepting the role should read. You may not transfer the principal’s property to yourself without full and adequate consideration unless the document specifically authorizes it, and doing so without authority can bring prosecution for fraud or embezzlement, and elder abuse charges if the principal is 65 or older (Prob. Code § 4128).

Can a power of attorney change a will?

No. A California power of attorney may not authorize an agent to make, publish, declare, amend, or revoke the principal’s will (Prob. Code § 4265). No clause in the document can override that rule, and a will signed by an agent isn’t a will.

The agent’s fiduciary role ends at death anyway. If you’re worried the principal’s estate plan is out of date, the only person who can change it’s the principal, while the principal has capacity. Handling assets consistently with the plan is part of your duty, and it’s the reason to choose the agent carefully.

Can an agent make gifts or change beneficiaries?

Only if the power of attorney expressly says so. Making or revoking a gift and designating or changing beneficiaries are both on the list of acts that require express authority (Prob. Code § 4264). General language such as “all powers permitted by law” isn’t enough for these.

Even with express authority, gifts are still subject to your fiduciary duties. A gift to yourself, your children, or anyone else has to fit the limits the document sets and the principal’s own known wishes and needs. Before you make any gift to yourself, read what the document says about self-gifts, because the fraud and embezzlement warning in Prob. Code § 4128 applies where the authority is missing. For how the two tools compare, see beneficiary designation vs. power of attorney.

How should you keep records as agent?

Keep a record of every transaction you make on the principal’s behalf, and keep it as if someone will audit it, because someone may. The duty applies no matter what the power of attorney says, since the statute isn’t subject to limitation in the document (Prob. Code § 4236).

Certain people can require your records or an accounting. The principal can ask at any time. So can the conservator of the principal’s estate, the principal’s personal representative or successor in interest after death, and anyone the court orders (Prob. Code § 4236). If the document requires an accounting, you owe one to the person it names.

A simple ledger works. Here’s a month for an agent paying a parent’s bills (the figures are illustrative):

Date	Payee and purpose	Amount	Proof kept
Oct. 1	Memory care facility, October care	$6,800	Invoice and bank confirmation
Oct. 3	Property tax installment, Ventura County	$3,150	Tax bill and receipt
Oct. 15	Agent reimbursement, pharmacy pickup	$96	Pharmacy receipt

Reimbursement is your right. An agent is entitled to reasonable compensation for services and to reimbursement of reasonable expenses (Prob. Code § 4204). Take it only in amounts you can document.

What’s an agent’s liability?

An agent who breaches a fiduciary duty can be sued and removed, and one who takes the principal’s property without authority can face criminal charges. You’re personally responsible for losses your breach causes. A court can review your acts, order an accounting, and revoke your authority.

The court process is set out in Prob. Code § 4541. A petition can ask the court to pass on your acts, to compel an accounting if you haven’t given one within 60 days of a written request, or to revoke your authority if you’ve violated your duties or are unfit, the principal lacks capacity, and revocation is in the principal’s best interest. A relative, a spouse, a friend of the principal, the conservator, and a court investigator can file (Prob. Code § 4540).

The other side matters too. If you act in good faith without notice that the power has ended, you’re protected from liability (Prob. Code § 4152 and Prob. Code § 4304). And an agent’s abuse of an elder is financial elder abuse under Welf. & Inst. Code § 15610.30, which reaches property taken by a representative for a wrongful use or by undue influence. Under Prob. Code § 259, a person found liable for financial abuse of an elder in the required circumstances is treated as having died before the elder and can’t inherit from that elder.

If a family fight has started over how an agent handled money, the people in it need litigation counsel. I don’t handle contested proceedings.

When does a power of attorney end?

The agent’s authority ends on the principal’s death, and on other events listed in Prob. Code § 4152. Those events are:

• Its own terms, such as an expiration date.
• The purpose being fulfilled or the subject being gone.
• Revocation by the principal.
• The principal’s death, except for specific authority a statute allows after death.
• Removal or resignation of the agent.
• The agent’s incapacity or death.
• Divorce or annulment where the agent is the principal’s spouse.

After death, you can’t sign for the principal, pay bills from the principal’s accounts, or sell the house. Someone acting in good faith and without actual knowledge of the death isn’t held to have acted without authority, and the action binds the principal’s successors unless it’s otherwise invalid (Prob. Code § 4304). Don’t rely on that protection. Once you know, stop. The detailed explanation is here.

Ending your authority doesn’t end your duties. You must promptly deliver the property and requested records to the principal, or, after death, to the personal representative or successors, and you remain responsible to account for what you did (Prob. Code § 4238).

Can a family member revoke a power of attorney?

Only the principal can revoke it while the principal has capacity. The principal can revoke by telling the agent, orally or in writing, that the authority is revoked, and no limit in the document can stop that (Prob. Code § 4153).

A relative can’t revoke it by objecting alone. If the principal has lost capacity, a family member’s route is a court petition under Prob. Code § 4540. The court can revoke the agent’s authority only if it finds the agent violated or is unfit for the fiduciary duties, the principal now lacks capacity to revoke, and revocation is in the principal’s best interest (Prob. Code § 4541). A court-appointed conservator of the estate can revoke or amend the power of attorney only after the court has authorized it (Prob. Code § 4206).

Someone who suspects abuse should also consider a report to Adult Protective Services or law enforcement. For a protective plan that reduces the risk from the start, see springing powers of attorney.

What certification or affidavit will a bank ask for?

Banks commonly ask for the original or a certified copy, identification, and sometimes their own form. California law lets you give them an agent’s affidavit stating that, when you used the power, you had no actual knowledge that the power had ended by revocation or that the principal had died or lost capacity. That affidavit is conclusive proof of the power’s non-revocation or non-termination at that time for acts done in good faith reliance (Prob. Code § 4305).

The affidavit carries real weight. A third person who refuses an act covered by your affidavit is liable for attorney’s fees in any proceeding needed to confirm your authority, unless the court finds the third person believed in good faith that you weren’t qualified or were exceeding your authority (Prob. Code § 4306).

A third person that accepts a valid power of attorney in good faith isn’t liable to the principal if the document was presented by the named agent, looks valid on its face, and is notarized or has two witnesses (Prob. Code § 4303). A third person generally must give an agent the same rights the principal would have if present (Prob. Code § 4300). It isn’t required to open a new account for a principal who isn’t already a customer (Prob. Code § 4310). If a bank keeps refusing, read what to do when a bank won’t accept a power of attorney.

Sign the affidavit only if it’s true. If you know the principal has died, don’t sign it.

What if you’re the agent for a parent?

The same rules apply, and the risks are higher because family money and family expectations get mixed. Keep a parent’s money in accounts titled for the parent, never in your own account. Reimburse yourself only with documentation. Read power of attorney for parents before you sign for a parent for the first time.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sign my own name on the principal’s documents?

You can sign your own name if you add your capacity, as in “Daniel Alvarez, as attorney-in-fact for Margaret Alvarez.” Signing only your name, with no capacity, risks making you personally bound to the deal.

Can I sign the principal’s name to a check or deposit?

Ask the bank first. Many banks want the account retitled or the power of attorney on file, and each has its own procedure. Under Prob. Code § 4302 a bank can require identification and signature specimens before it acts.

Does a power of attorney have to be filed with the court?

No. It’s a private document and it takes effect without a court filing. Court involvement comes only if someone files a petition under Probate Code section 4540. The filing question has its own page.

Am I entitled to be paid as agent?

Yes, unless the document says otherwise. An agent is entitled to reasonable compensation and reimbursement of reasonable expenses (Prob. Code § 4204). Written records of your time and costs are your protection if the family later questions it.

Can I use the power of attorney after the principal dies?

No, with limited statutory exceptions. Authority ends at death (Prob. Code § 4152). The executor or trustee handles what comes next, and you owe the property and your records to the personal representative or the successors (Prob. Code § 4238).

What if I no longer want to be agent?

You can resign. Under Prob. Code § 4207, an agent resigns by giving notice to the principal if the principal is competent, by giving notice to the conservator if one has been appointed, with the written agreement of a successor agent named in the power of attorney, or by court order. Resignation ends your authority (Prob. Code § 4152).

Can a power of attorney be used for health decisions?

A financial power of attorney doesn’t cover health care. Health decisions go through an advance health care directive.