Effective January 1, 2018 the Power of Attorney statutes contained in Chapter 32A are no longer valid for new powers of attorney signed on or after that date. All POA's that are drafted or executed on or after January 1st must be done in accordance with new NCGS Chapter 32C. Current forms should not be used and care should be taken when accepting an executed POA after January 1st to be certain it is in compliance with the new law.

Chapter 32C is based on the Uniform Power of Attorney Act and sets forth a number of changes, including a new short-form POA, a new limited POA for real estate transactions, automatic durability of POA's under the new form, and the ability to appoint a guardian in the POA document should the principle become incompetent in the future.

Health Care POA's are not directly affected by this change, and any POA executed on or prior to December 31, 2017 using Chapter 32A will remain valid so long as it complied with 32A when executed on or before December 31st.

Please take a few minutes to read the new Chaper 32C  (Session Law 2017-153) and exercise extra caution in the coming weeks and months to ensure (1) the proper form is used based on the execution date for new POA's, (2) a POA presented as authority for a transaction complies with the statute as it existed when the document was executed, and (3) any current clients to whom you have provided a POA form are aware that if it is executed after December 31st, a new form needs to be utilized.