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Utah Power of Attorney
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Utah Power of Attorney

A Utah power of attorney is durable by default and has to be signed before a notary. Title 75A Chapter 2 walls eight powers behind an express grant.

By Settled Editorial

A Utah power of attorney names an agent to handle your money and property while you are alive. Utah makes it durable by default, so it survives your incapacity without any special wording. Utah also requires you to sign it in front of a notary, and that signing rule is a condition of validity rather than a nicety.

The rules sit in the Uniform Power of Attorney Act at Utah Code Title 75A, Chapter 2, sections 75A-2-101 through 75A-2-403. The chapter took effect on 1 September 2024. Read this as a plain-language map of the statute and then have a Utah attorney draft or review the document you actually sign, because a power of attorney hands somebody real control over your accounts.

One boundary sets up everything else on this site. A power of attorney ends the moment the principal dies. The agent's authority stops, the bank stops honoring the document, and a personal representative appointed by a Utah district court takes over. Utah hears probate in the district court in all 29 counties, with no separate probate court anywhere in the state. For what happens after that point, start with the Utah probate guide.

Utah's Act Lives In Title 75A, Not Title 75

Utah moved this law. Financial powers of attorney used to sit inside the Utah Uniform Probate Code, and a 2024 recodification lifted them into a new Title 75A called Fiduciaries. Chapter 1 is Fiduciaries, Chapter 2 is the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, Chapter 4 is the Uniform Powers of Appointment Act, and Chapter 9 is the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act.

Anything citing a Title 75 section for a Utah financial power of attorney is citing a place the law no longer occupies. Title 75 stops at Chapter 8, and Title 75 Chapter 5 has no Part 5. If you are checking a form or an article against the code, confirm it points at 75A-2 before you trust the rest of it.

Durable By Default

Some states make you add magic words to keep a power of attorney alive after incapacity. Utah flips that. Utah Code 75A-2-104 is one sentence long:

A power of attorney created under this chapter is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity of the principal.

Your document has to opt out of durability, in express words, to lose it. Section 75A-2-110(1)(b) mirrors that from the other direction, ending a power of attorney on the principal's incapacity only where the document is not durable.

Utah also defines incapacity broadly at 75A-2-102(8). It reaches an impairment in the ability to receive and evaluate information or to make or communicate decisions, even with technological assistance, and it separately reaches a principal who is missing, detained (including incarcerated in a penal system), or outside the United States and unable to return. A durable Utah document keeps your finances moving through any of those.

Section 75A-2-110(3) adds a quiet piece of good news. Unless the document says otherwise, an agent's authority stays exercisable no matter how long ago you signed. A Utah power of attorney does not go stale on its own.

Signing Rules Start With A Notary

Utah Code 75A-2-105 sets two conditions on the principal's signature, and both have to hold:

  • The document is signed before a notary public or another individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments (75A-2-105(1)(a)(i)).
  • The principal has sufficient mental capacity at the time of execution to understand that the principal is appointing an agent to handle the principal's financial affairs (75A-2-105(1)(a)(ii)).

A principal who cannot physically sign may direct another individual to sign the principal's name in the principal's conscious presence. Section 75A-2-105(1)(c) then lowers the capacity bar in a helpful way: the principal does not need to understand how the agent will manage the affairs.

Two more things the chapter does not ask for. No witnesses. No signature from the agent. Acceptance happens by conduct under 75A-2-113, so an agent who exercises authority or performs duties has accepted the appointment without signing anything.

Section 75A-2-105(1)(b) keeps the familiar uniform rule as a separate sentence: a signature is presumed genuine if the principal acknowledges it before a notary. Utah stacks the execution requirement on top of that presumption, and 75A-2-106(1) ties the two together by making compliance with 75A-2-105 the test of validity for a document executed in Utah on or after 10 May 2016. Skip the notary and you have a validity problem, not an inconvenience.

Section 75A-2-106 also handles paperwork. A photocopy or an electronically transmitted copy of the original has the same effect as the original. For a real property transaction, that copy may be recorded in the county where the transaction lies when it is attached to an affidavit of the person accepting the power of attorney. Recording is never a condition of validity.

Who You May Not Name As Agent

Utah bars one specific choice. Under 75A-2-105(2)(a), a principal who lives in or is about to live in a hospital, an assisted living facility, a skilled nursing facility or a similar residential care facility may not name as agent the owner, operator, health care provider or employee of that facility. Two exceptions survive: the person is the principal's spouse, legal guardian or next of kin, or the agent's authority is strictly limited to helping the principal establish eligibility for Medicaid.

Section 75A-2-105(2)(b) gives that ban teeth by cross-reference. A violation is a violation of Utah Code 76-5-111.4, financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult, which grades from a second degree felony down to a class B misdemeanor depending on the mental state and the amount involved.

Immediate Or Springing

A Utah power of attorney works the day you sign it. Section 75A-2-109(1) makes it effective when executed unless the principal provides in the document that it becomes effective at a future date or on a future event or contingency.

If you want a springing document, name the person who decides. Section 75A-2-109(2) lets the principal authorize one or more people to determine, in a writing or other record, that the event has occurred. Where the document springs on incapacity and nobody was named, or the named person will not or cannot decide, 75A-2-109(3) supplies a fallback split across the two limbs of the incapacity definition:

  • A physician decides the impairment limb.
  • An attorney at law, a judge or an appropriate governmental official decides the missing, detained or outside-the-United-States limb.

Section 75A-2-109(4) then lets whoever the principal authorized to make that call act as the principal's HIPAA personal representative, so they can reach the medical records the determination depends on.

One drafting footnote worth knowing, because it is a live defect inside the code. Section 75A-2-109(3) still points at "Subsection 75A-2-102(14)(a)" and "(14)(b)" for the two limbs. Amendments effective 7 May 2025 inserted definitions ahead of it, so incapacity now sits at 75A-2-102(8)(a) and (8)(b), and subsection (14) is the definition of "Principal". The substance did not change. Quote the two limbs rather than the subsection number and your document will point a reader at the right text.

Springing documents feel safer and cost you speed. Someone has to produce the physician's writing before your agent can act, which is a delay at the exact moment you needed the agent. That trade is a good question to settle with a lawyer.

Eight Powers That Need An Express Grant

A general grant of authority does not reach your estate plan. Utah Code 75A-2-201(1) lists acts an agent may perform only if the power of attorney expressly grants the authority. Utah's list has eight items:

  1. Create, amend, revoke or terminate an inter vivos trust
  2. Make a gift
  3. Create or change rights of survivorship
  4. Create or change a beneficiary designation
  5. Delegate authority granted under the power of attorney
  6. Waive the principal's right to be a beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity, including a survivor benefit under a retirement plan
  7. Exercise fiduciary powers that the principal has authority to delegate
  8. Disclaim property or otherwise exercise a power of appointment

Count them against any form you find online. Several Uniform Power of Attorney Act states print ten, splitting disclaimer from powers of appointment and adding an item for acting as a partner, member or manager of an entity. Utah does neither, so a ten-item list grants two things Utah's statute never enumerated.

Section 75A-2-201(2) adds a second guard. Unless the document says otherwise, an agent who is not an ancestor, spouse or descendant of the principal may not use any of those powers to create an interest in the principal's property for the agent, or for someone the agent owes a legal obligation of support. The statutory form restates that rule to the reader under a heading reading LIMITATION ON AGENT'S AUTHORITY.

Three mechanical rules round out the section. A grant of authority to do all acts a principal could do gives the agent the general authority described in sections 75A-2-204 through 75A-2-216 (subsection (3)). Where granted subjects are similar or overlap, the broadest authority controls (subsection (5)). And authority reaches property the principal owns at signing or acquires later, inside Utah or outside it (subsection (6)).

Gifts Run On A Federal Cap, Not A Utah Number

Utah writes no dollar figure for gifts. Section 75A-2-217(2)(a) provides that, unless the document says otherwise, general gift authority lets the agent give per donee no more than the annual federal gift tax exclusion under Internal Revenue Code section 2503(b), or twice that where the principal's spouse agrees to consent to a split gift under section 2513. The cap moves whenever the federal exclusion moves.

Section 75A-2-217(3) then constrains the reason for the gift. The agent may give only as the agent determines is consistent with the principal's objectives if the agent actually knows them, and otherwise as the agent determines is consistent with the principal's best interest, weighing the value and nature of the property, the principal's foreseeable obligations and need for maintenance, minimization of taxes, eligibility for benefit programs, and the principal's own history of making gifts.

If you want your agent gifting on a different scale, say so in the document. The statute yields to the words you write.

What Your Agent Owes You

Utah Code 75A-2-114 sorts an agent's duties into two tiers, and the difference matters when you are drafting.

Duties the document cannot switch off (75A-2-114(1)): act in accordance with the principal's reasonable expectations to the extent the agent actually knows them and otherwise in the principal's best interest, act in good faith, act only within the scope of authority granted, and comply with the terms of the document.

Duties the document may modify (75A-2-114(2)): act loyally for the principal's benefit, avoid a conflict of interest that impairs impartial action, act with the care, competence and diligence ordinarily exercised by agents in similar circumstances, keep a record of receipts, disbursements and transactions, cooperate with whoever holds authority to make health care decisions, and attempt to preserve the principal's estate plan where doing so fits the principal's best interest.

Subsection (2) opens with a line people misread. An agent who has accepted appointment has no further obligation to act. Utah does not force a named agent to keep serving.

Section 75A-2-114(8) is the accountability valve. An agent does not have to disclose receipts, disbursements or transactions unless a court orders it or one of a listed group asks, including the principal, a guardian, a conservator, another fiduciary, a protective governmental agency, an interested person after the principal's incapacity, and the personal representative after the principal's death. Once asked, the agent has 30 days to comply or to put in writing why more time is needed, and then an additional 30 days to comply.

Two more sections fill out the relationship. Section 75A-2-112 entitles an agent to reimbursement of expenses reasonably incurred and to compensation that is reasonable under the circumstances, with no schedule or percentage attached. Section 75A-2-111 lets coagents act independently unless the document says otherwise, and lets a successor agent step in only after every predecessor has resigned, died, become incapacitated, become unqualified or declined.

Utah's Statutory Form

Utah adopted the uniform act's optional fill-in document. Section 75A-2-301 prints a Statutory Form Power of Attorney, and a document substantially in that form carries the meaning and effect the chapter prescribes. Using it is optional, not mandatory.

The form grants general authority by initialing any of 13 subjects, or one line marked All Preceding Subjects:

Real Property, Tangible Personal Property, Stocks and Bonds, Commodities and Options, Banks and Other Financial Institutions, Operation of Entity or Business, Insurance and Annuities, Estates, Trusts, and Other Beneficial Interests, Claims and Litigation, Personal and Family Maintenance, Benefits from Governmental Programs or Civil or Military Service, Retirement Plans, and Taxes.

Below that sits a separate block headed GRANT OF SPECIFIC AUTHORITY (OPTIONAL), where the eight express-grant powers each get their own initial line. Leaving them blank is a decision, and it is usually the right one.

The form tells the reader four things on its face that people get wrong elsewhere. It does not authorize health care decisions. The agent is entitled to reasonable compensation unless the principal states otherwise. It provides for one agent, and a coagent goes in the Special Instructions, where coagents are not required to act together unless the principal says they must. And it lets you nominate a conservator or guardian for yourself in advance.

Section 75A-2-302 prints a second optional form, an Agent's Certification signed under penalty of perjury and acknowledged before a notary. That is the document a bank may ask your agent to produce.

Banks Get Seven Business Days

Utah pairs a protection for whoever accepts the document with a penalty for whoever stonewalls it.

Section 75A-2-119 protects the acceptor. Someone who in good faith accepts an acknowledged power of attorney, without actual knowledge that it is void, invalid or terminated, may rely on it as though it were genuine and still in force. That person may also request, and rely on without further investigation, an agent's certification of a factual matter, an English translation, or an opinion of counsel where the requester states a reason in writing.

Section 75A-2-120 supplies the clock. A person has seven business days from presentation to accept or to request one of those items, then five business days after receiving the item to accept. Nobody may require a different form of power of attorney for authority the presented document already grants.

Six grounds excuse a refusal under 75A-2-120(3): the person is not otherwise required to transact with the principal in the same circumstances, transacting would be inconsistent with federal law, the person actually knows the authority or the document has terminated, a request under 75A-2-119(4) was refused, the person believes in good faith that the document is invalid or the agent lacks the authority for the act requested, or the person has made or knows of a report to the Division of Aging and Adult Services alleging abuse, neglect, exploitation or abandonment by the agent.

Refuse without a ground and 75A-2-120(4) exposes the refusing party to a court order mandating acceptance and to the reasonable attorney fees and costs of the proceeding.

How A Utah Power Of Attorney Ends

Section 75A-2-110(1) lists six terminating events for the document itself:

  • The principal dies
  • The principal becomes incapacitated, where the document is not durable
  • The principal revokes it
  • The document provides that it terminates
  • The purpose of the document is accomplished
  • The principal revokes the agent's authority, or the agent dies, becomes incapacitated or resigns, and no other agent is provided for

Section 75A-2-110(2) separately ends an agent's authority when the principal revokes it, when the agent dies, becomes incapacitated or resigns, when the document terminates, or when an action is filed for dissolution or annulment of the agent's marriage to the principal or for their legal separation. That divorce trigger fires on the filing, not on the decree, unless your document provides otherwise.

Signing a new document does not quietly cancel an old one. Under 75A-2-110(6), a later power of attorney revokes an earlier one only where the later document says the previous one, or all other powers of attorney, are revoked.

Revocation itself has two modes under 75A-2-110(7). Where the document names a method and expressly rules out every other method, you have to substantially comply with that method. Where the document names no method, or does not make its method exclusive, you may revoke by any other method manifesting clear and convincing evidence of your intent. Tell the agent and tell every bank holding the document either way, because 75A-2-110(4) protects anyone who acts in good faith without actual knowledge that the authority ended.

A Conservator Does Not Cancel Your Agent

Utah keeps your agent in place when a court gets involved. Section 75A-2-108 lets you nominate a conservator of your estate or a guardian of your person inside the power of attorney, and the court must appoint according to your most recent nomination unless good cause is shown or the nominee is disqualified.

On a petition to appoint a conservator, the court has to consider whether your document is already adequate to manage and protect the estate without one. If a conservator is appointed anyway, 75A-2-108(4) is unusually reader-friendly: the power of attorney is not terminated, and the agent's authority continues unless the court limits, suspends or terminates it. The agent simply becomes accountable to the conservator as well as to you. That interaction is the reason a financial power of attorney is the practical alternative to a court proceeding, which is covered in the Utah guardianship planning guide.

Health Care Is A Separate Document

Section 75A-2-103(2) excludes a power to make health care decisions from Chapter 75A-2 entirely, and the statutory form repeats that on its face. A Utah financial power of attorney cannot carry medical authority no matter how the document is worded.

Utah handles medical decisions through a separate instrument with its own signing rules, covered in the Utah advance health care directive guide. Sign both, name people who will talk to each other, and remember that 75A-2-114(2)(e) requires your financial agent to cooperate with whoever holds the medical authority.

Section 75A-2-103 excludes three other things: a power coupled with an interest in the subject of the power, a proxy delegating voting or management rights in an entity, and a power created on a form a government prescribed for a governmental purpose. That last exclusion is why an agency's own authorization form, such as a tax power of attorney, does not run on these rules.

Delegating A Parent's Powers Runs Six Months

A different statute covers a parent handing over authority for a child. Utah Code 75-5-103, still inside the Utah Uniform Probate Code, lets a parent or a guardian of a minor or an incapacitated person delegate powers over care, custody or property by a properly executed power of attorney for a period not exceeding six months.

Two powers stay behind. A delegation cannot include the power to consent to marriage or to the adoption of a minor ward. Plan around the six-month wall for a long deployment or a long hospitalization, because the document expires on its own.

When The Agent Misuses The Power

Chapter 75A-2 creates no crime of its own. Section 75A-2-117 makes an agent who violates the chapter liable to the principal or the principal's successors for the amount needed to restore the value of the property to where it would have been, plus the attorney fees and costs paid on the agent's behalf.

Section 75A-2-116 is the door into court. The principal, the agent, a guardian or conservator, a spouse, a parent or descendant, a presumptive heir, a named beneficiary with a financial interest, a protective governmental agency, a caregiver, and anyone asked to accept the document may petition to construe the power of attorney or review the agent's conduct. A capable principal keeps control of that: on the principal's motion the court has to dismiss the petition unless it finds the principal lacks capacity to revoke the agent's authority.

Criminal exposure arrives from the Criminal Code by cross-reference rather than from this chapter. Utah Code 76-5-111.4(2)(d) makes it financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult to unjustly or improperly use a vulnerable adult's power of attorney for the profit or advantage of someone other than that adult.

What Utah Law Leaves Open

Two questions this chapter does not answer, and neither should be filled in from a template.

Electronic signing and remote online notarization. Section 75A-2-102(12) defines a power of attorney as a writing or other record, and 75A-2-402 modifies the federal E-SIGN Act except for section 101(c). Neither settles whether a remote online notarization satisfies the "signed before a notary public" requirement in 75A-2-105(1)(a)(i), because that turns on Utah's notary law in Title 46. Ask a Utah attorney before signing a financial power of attorney remotely.

A recordable short form for real estate. Chapter 75A-2 prints none. The statutory form's Real Property subject carries that authority, and 75A-2-106(4) covers recording a copy with an affidavit. Whether Title 57 prescribes something shorter is a separate question this guide does not answer.

Power Of Attorney Compared With Probate

Power of attorneyProbate in Utah
When it worksWhile the principal is aliveAfter the principal dies
Who actsThe agent named in the documentA personal representative appointed by the court
Source of authorityThe signed, notarized documentLetters issued by a Utah district court
What it coversMoney and property tasks the document allowsDebts, taxes and distribution of the estate
Ends whenThe principal dies, revokes, or the document expiresThe estate is fully administered and closed

A power of attorney lowers the stress of a bad year while you are alive. It moves nothing out of probate. For the tools that do, read how to avoid probate in Utah, and for where this document sits among the others, see Utah estate planning basics.

When To Talk With A Utah Attorney

A power of attorney is one of the strongest documents you will ever sign. Bring in a Utah attorney when:

  • You want the agent to make gifts, change beneficiaries or touch a trust, which means initialing the express-grant block
  • You own real estate, a business, or property in another state
  • Your family may disagree about who should serve
  • You want safeguards against financial abuse built into the document
  • You are choosing between an immediate document and a springing one
  • You want to sign electronically or with a remote notary
  • You downloaded a form and cannot tell whether it was written for Utah

This page explains the rules so you can arrive with better questions. A lawyer can adapt the statutory form, grant the powers you meant to grant, and make sure the document works on the day your agent needs it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Utah power of attorney have to be notarized?

Yes, and this is the rule most out-of-state advice gets wrong. Utah Code 75A-2-105(1)(a)(i) lets a principal sign a power of attorney only if the document is signed before a notary public or another individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments. Section 75A-2-106(1) then makes compliance with 75A-2-105 the test of validity for any power of attorney executed in Utah on or after 10 May 2016. In the plain uniform text, and in states such as Colorado, acknowledgment before a notary only raises a presumption that the signature is genuine. Utah keeps that presumption at 75A-2-105(1)(b) and adds the execution requirement on top of it.

Is a Utah power of attorney durable by default?

Yes. Utah Code 75A-2-104 reads in full: a power of attorney created under this chapter is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity of the principal. A Utah document survives the principal's incapacity without any durability wording, and it has to opt out in express words to stop doing so. Section 75A-2-110(1)(b) is the mirror image, ending the power of attorney on incapacity only where the document is not durable.

How many Utah powers need an express grant?

Eight. Utah Code 75A-2-201(1)(a) through (h) covers creating or changing an inter vivos trust, making a gift, creating or changing rights of survivorship, creating or changing a beneficiary designation, delegating the agent's authority, waiving the principal's right to be a beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity, exercising fiduciary powers the principal could delegate, and disclaiming property or otherwise exercising a power of appointment. Utah folds disclaimer and powers of appointment into one item and carries no separate item for acting as a partner, member or manager of an entity, so a ten-item list copied from another state renders powers Utah's statute does not enumerate.

Does Utah have an official power of attorney form?

Yes, and using it is optional. Utah Code 75A-2-301 prints a Statutory Form Power of Attorney that a document may follow in substance to carry the meaning and effect the chapter prescribes. It grants general authority by initialing 13 subjects, adds a separate initialed block headed GRANT OF SPECIFIC AUTHORITY (OPTIONAL) for the eight express-grant powers, offers a nomination of a conservator or guardian, and closes with a section headed IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR AGENT. Section 75A-2-302 prints a second optional form, the Agent's Certification.

Can a Utah power of attorney cover medical decisions?

No. Utah Code 75A-2-103(2) excludes a power to make health care decisions from the chapter, and the statutory form says so on its face: this power of attorney does not authorize the agent to make health care decisions for you. Health care runs through a separate Utah document. The financial agent still has to cooperate with whoever holds medical authority, under 75A-2-114(2)(e).

Does a Utah bank have to accept a power of attorney?

Usually yes, on a clock. Utah Code 75A-2-120(2) gives a person no more than seven business days after presentation to either accept an acknowledged power of attorney or request a certification, an English translation or an opinion of counsel, and no more than five business days after receiving that item to accept. The same subsection bars anyone from demanding a different form of power of attorney for authority the presented document already grants. Section 75A-2-120(3) lists six grounds for a lawful refusal, and 75A-2-120(4) exposes an unlawful refusal to a court order plus the reasonable attorney fees and costs of the proceeding.

When does a Utah power of attorney end?

Utah Code 75A-2-110(1) lists six terminating events: the principal dies, the principal becomes incapacitated where the document is not durable, the principal revokes it, the document says it terminates, the purpose is accomplished, or the agent stops serving with no successor named. Section 75A-2-110(2) separately ends an agent's authority when an action is filed for dissolution or annulment of the agent's marriage to the principal, or for their legal separation, unless the document provides otherwise. That trigger is the filing, not the decree.

This guide is general information about Utah powers of attorney. Confirm anything that affects your situation with a licensed Utah attorney before you sign, because a power of attorney controls real money and property.

Sources:

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Information current as of August 28, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Utah can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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