Power of Attorney in Michigan: Forms and Current Rules

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A Michigan power of attorney lets a person, called the principal, authorize an agent to handle specified property or financial matters. Michigan replaced its prior financial-power rules with the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, effective July 1, 2024. The authority comes from the signed document, so selecting powers and Special Instructions deserves the same care as selecting the agent.

Michigan’s financial power of attorney form

Michigan Compiled Laws section 556.401 contains the state’s statutory form. A document substantially following that form receives the meaning and effect prescribed by the Act. The Michigan Attorney General also announced free fillable financial and medical forms in August 2025 and stated that they comply with the updated law.

The statutory financial form can grant authority over subjects such as real property, banks and financial institutions, insurance, taxes, claims, business interests, and estate-related matters. The principal can grant all listed subjects or initial selected subjects. Special Instructions can narrow, expand, delay, or otherwise shape authority within the limits of Michigan law.

Signing and durability are separate questions

The statutory form warns that durability requires the principal’s signature either to be acknowledged before a notary or made in the presence of two witnesses who also sign. Neither witness may be an agent or successor agent named in the document. One witness may also serve as the notary or other authorized acknowledgment officer.

A durable power of attorney continues while the living principal is incapacitated unless it was revoked or the agent’s authority otherwise ended. A nondurable power terminates when the principal becomes incapacitated. Notarization also creates a statutory presumption that the signature is genuine and improves the document’s treatment under the acceptance provisions.

When the agent may start acting

Michigan’s statutory form is effective immediately unless the principal states otherwise in Special Instructions. A delayed or “springing” instruction should identify the triggering event and how it will be established. The document does not automatically revoke an older power of attorney unless it says the earlier power or all earlier powers are revoked.

The form provides for an initial agent and successor agents who serve one at a time. Coagents can be named in Special Instructions, and they are not required to act together unless the document imposes that requirement. Naming a successor helps prevent the power from ending solely because the first agent cannot or will not act.

Michigan imposes duties on the agent

An agent must follow the principal’s known reasonable expectations or otherwise act in the principal’s best interest. The agent must act in good faith, stay within granted authority, keep transaction records, and disclose the agency capacity when acting. Additional default duties include loyalty, care, competence, diligence, conflict avoidance, and appropriate cooperation with a health-care decision-maker.

Before acting under a durable power, the agent must sign an acknowledgment containing the statutory declarations. The acknowledgment is not merely a witness signature on the principal’s document; it is the agent’s acceptance of defined legal duties. The statutory form includes an optional acknowledgment template.

Some powers need express language

Broad subject-matter authority does not automatically include every estate-changing transaction. Michigan section 556.301 requires an express grant for specified acts, including creating or changing survivorship rights or beneficiary designations, making certain gifts, delegating authority, and disclaiming property. Even with express authority, the Act restricts an unrelated agent from using these powers to create an interest in the principal’s property for the agent or someone the agent must support unless the document provides otherwise.

This is a useful reason to avoid treating a power of attorney document as a generic permission slip. The principal can choose practical banking and property powers without automatically authorizing major changes to an estate plan. Special Instructions should be internally consistent with the powers selected elsewhere in the document.

Financial and medical authority use different documents

Michigan’s statutory financial form expressly says it does not authorize health-care decisions. Michigan uses a designation of patient advocate for medical and personal-care decisions. The Michigan Legislature’s guide describes that designation as a durable power of attorney for health care governed by sections 700.5506 through 700.5515.

A patient advocate acts only when the patient cannot participate in medical-treatment decisions and must accept the designation before acting. A person preparing both documents should coordinate the financial agent and patient advocate without assuming that one appointment supplies both kinds of authority.

How a Michigan power of attorney ends

Under section 556.210, a power of attorney terminates when the principal dies, revokes it, a stated terminating event occurs, or a limited purpose is completed. A nondurable power also terminates upon incapacity. The agent’s authority can separately end through revocation, death, incapacity, resignation, or a marital dissolution or separation filing when the agent is the principal’s spouse, unless the document provides otherwise.

Michigan’s Act says a later power does not revoke an earlier one merely because it was signed later. Revocation language should therefore identify what is being revoked, and people or institutions relying on the old document should receive notice. Good-faith actions taken without actual knowledge of termination may still bind the principal and successors.

Presenting the document to a bank or other institution

Section 556.220 generally gives a recipient seven business days to accept an acknowledged power or request an agent acknowledgment, certification, translation, or legal opinion. After requested material is received, the general acceptance period is five business days. The statute also lists reasons for permitted refusal, including actual knowledge of termination, a good-faith validity or authority concern, and specified suspected-abuse circumstances.

Those rules make notarization and a completed agent acknowledgment practically important. Keep the original secure, provide usable copies only where needed, and preserve a record of which institutions received the document. A difficult transaction, unusual gift authority, family conflict, or cross-state asset may justify advice based on the actual document and facts.

Sources

• Michigan Legislature: Uniform Power of Attorney Act
• Michigan Compiled Laws § 556.401
• Michigan Compiled Laws § 556.301
• Michigan Compiled Laws § 556.210
• Michigan Compiled Laws § 556.220
• Michigan Attorney General: Fillable Power of Attorney Forms
• Michigan Legislature: A Guide to Medical and Legal Decisions