A durable power of attorney is a written instrument by which a principal designates another person as the principal’s agent.
An adult, known as the principal, may designate another adult, known as the agent, to make financial decisions on the principal’s behalf by executing a written power of attorney that satisfies all of the following requirements:
1. Contains language that clearly indicates that the principal intends to create a power of attorney and clearly identifies the agent.
2. Is signed or marked by the principal or signed in the principal’s name by some other individual in the principal’s conscious presence and at the principal’s direction.
3. Is witnessed by a person other than the agent, the agent’s spouse, the agent’s children or the notary public.
4. Is executed and attested by its acknowledgment by the principal and by an affidavit of the witness before notary public and evidenced by the notary public’s certificate, under official seal, in substantially the following form:
I, __________, the principal, sign my name to this power of attorney this _____ day of __________ and, being first duly sworn, do declare to the undersigned authority that I sign and execute this instrument as my power of attorney and that I sign it willingly, or willingly direct another to sign for me, that I execute it as my free and voluntary act for the purposes expressed in the power of attorney and that I am eighteen years of age or older, of sound mind and under no constraint or undue influence.
______________________
Principal
I, __________, the witness, sign my name to the foregoing power of attorney being first duly sworn and do declare to the undersigned authority that the principal signs and executes this instrument as his/her power of attorney and that he/she signs it willingly, or willingly directs another to sign for him/her, and that I, in the presence and hearing of the principal, sign this power of attorney as witness to the principal’s signing and that to the best of my knowledge the principal is eighteen years of age or older, of sound mind and under no constraint or undue influence.
____________________
Witness
The state of _________
County of ____________
Subscribed, sworn to and acknowledged before me by __________, the principal, and subscribed and sworn to before me by __________, witness, this _____ day of ____________.
(seal)
(signed) _____________________
______________________________
(notary public)
See:
A.R.S. 14-5501 Durable power of attorney; creation; validity
A.R.S. 14-5502 Effect of lapse of time, disability or incapacity
A.R.S. 14-5503 Relation of agent to court appointed fiduciary
A.R.S. 14-5504 Revocation; termination; effect; notice
A.R.S. 14-5505 Continuance of durable powers of attorney by affidavit
A.R.S. 14-5506 Powers of attorney; best interest; intimidation; deception; definitions
A.R.S. 14-5507 Applicability of article