Powers of Attorney in Texas

A Texas power of attorney lets one adult, the principal, name an agent to act for them while they are alive. The financial version is a durable power of attorney under Estates Code chapter 751, and it must be signed and acknowledged before a notary. Health care decisions need a separate document, a medical power of attorney under Health and Safety Code chapter 166. The financial power ends when the principal dies, under section 751.131, and from that point the will and the probate court take over.

Two documents, two codes

People say "power of attorney" as if it were one thing. Texas law treats it as two. The Durable Power of Attorney Act, Estates Code subtitle P, which includes chapters 751 and 752, governs authority over money and property. Its scope section, section 751.0015, carves out several kinds of documents, and a medical power of attorney is one of them. Medical decision-making lives in subchapter D of Health and Safety Code chapter 166, with its own signing rules, its own form, and its own limits on what an agent can approve.

The official financial form makes the split explicit: its opening notice in section 752.051 says the document does not authorize anyone to make medical decisions.

What makes a durable power of attorney valid

Section 751.0021(a) sets four requirements. The instrument must:

• be a writing or other record that names an agent and grants authority to act in the principal's place, whether or not the words "power of attorney" appear;
• be signed by the adult principal, or by another adult in the principal's conscious presence and at the principal's direction;
• contain durability language, either that it is not affected by the principal's later disability or incapacity, or that it becomes effective on that disability or incapacity, or words that clearly say the same; and
• be acknowledged before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds and to administer oaths, which in everyday terms means a notary.

The durability clause is what lets the document keep working after the principal loses capacity, the moment it is usually needed most. When the acknowledgment is done properly, section 751.0022 presumes the signature is genuine. Under section 751.0023, a document signed in Texas is valid if it meets 751.0021(a); one signed in another state is valid here if it met that state's law or the federal military power of attorney rules; and a photocopy or electronically sent copy generally carries the same weight as the original.

Some documents take effect only later, on incapacity. Unless the document defines the term itself, section 751.00201 treats the principal as incapacitated once a physician certifies in writing, after the document was signed and based on an examination, that the principal is mentally incapable of managing financial affairs.

The statutory form and its initialed powers

Chapter 752 contains a fill-in form the Legislature wrote out word for word. Under section 752.003 nobody is required to use it, and other forms are fine. A completed version is legally sufficient under section 752.004 when its wording substantially tracks the statute, it is properly filled in, and the principal's signature is acknowledged.

The heart of the form is a list of fourteen subject areas, lettered (A) through (N): real property, tangible personal property, stocks and bonds, commodities and options, banking, business operations, insurance and annuities, estate and trust matters, claims and litigation, personal and family maintenance, government benefits, retirement plans, taxes, and digital assets. The principal grants a category by putting initials on its line and withholds it by leaving the line blank. Initialing line (O) grants all fourteen at once. Section 752.002 confirms the form stays valid even when some lines are left uninitialed.

A few other choices on the form carry real weight:

• Timing. The form takes effect immediately unless the principal crosses out alternative (A) and keeps (B), which delays it until disability or incapacity. If neither is crossed out, the form says (A) is assumed.
• Gifts. An initialed gift instruction caps each gift at the annual federal gift tax exclusion. Section 751.032 applies the same default ceiling to general gift authority in any durable power of attorney.
• Home equity loans. The notice says an agent can sign home equity papers only if the principal signed the power of attorney at a lender's office, a law office, or a title company.

Certain powers are never implied. Under section 751.031(b), an agent may create, change, or end a living trust, make a gift, create or change survivorship rights, change a beneficiary designation, or hand the authority to someone else only when the document grants that power expressly. Section 752.052 supplies optional language for initialing each of those powers separately. Section 751.031(c) adds a guardrail: unless the document says otherwise, an agent who is not the principal's spouse, ancestor, or descendant cannot use those powers to shift the principal's property to themselves or to someone they are legally obligated to support.

What an agent owes the principal

Accepting the job happens by conduct. Under section 751.022, an agent accepts by exercising authority or otherwise acting on the appointment. From then on, section 751.101 makes the agent a fiduciary toward the principal when acting under the document, with a duty to inform and to account.

The specific duties are short and concrete. The agent must timely tell the principal about each action taken (section 751.102) and keep records of every action or decision until they are delivered to the principal, released, or discharged by a court (section 751.103). The principal may demand an accounting at any time, and section 751.104 spells out what it must contain: property received, each action, receipts and disbursements, assets controlled with current values, cash on hand and where it is held, and known debts. If the agent does not deliver within 60 days of the demand, or a different period the principal sets or a court orders, section 751.105 lets the principal sue to force the accounting or the return of assets, or to terminate the power of attorney. An agent must also preserve the principal's estate plan, when the agent knows it and keeping it is in the principal's best interest (section 751.122).

Unless the document says otherwise, co-agents may each act alone (section 751.021) and an agent is entitled to reasonable compensation plus expenses (section 751.024). The statutory form warns agents that misusing the authority can lead to damages or prosecution under Penal Code chapter 32, and section 751.251 lets the principal, a guardian, a named beneficiary, a protective services agency, or another interested person ask a court to review an agent's conduct.

When a bank or title company hesitates

Subchapter E of chapter 751 puts third parties on a clock:

1. The agent presents the document

   Under section 751.201(a), a person asked to accept a durable power of attorney must accept it unless a refusal ground in section 751.206 applies. Section 751.202 bars demanding a different form, or demanding recording when no law requires it.

2. The institution may ask for more, within a deadline

   Instead of accepting on the spot, it may request an agent's certification or an opinion of counsel no later than the 10th business day after presentation, or an English translation no later than the 5th business day. The certification is signed under penalty of perjury, and section 751.203 supplies a model version.

3. Acceptance follows the answer

   Once it receives a requested certification or opinion, the institution must accept no later than the 7th business day after receipt, unless a refusal ground exists. Both sides can agree to extend these periods.

4. A refusal must be explained in writing

   Section 751.206 lists the permitted grounds, among them a good-faith belief that the document is invalid, actual knowledge that it ended, a pending court case about it, and a report of suspected abuse or exploitation by the agent. Section 751.207 requires a written statement of the reason by the acceptance deadline. If none of the grounds applies, section 751.212 lets the principal or agent sue for an order compelling acceptance, with possible court costs and attorney's fees.

Real estate adds one more step. A durable power of attorney used to sign a deed, deed of trust, lease, lien, release, or similar recorded instrument must itself be recorded with the county clerk where the property sits, within 30 days after that instrument is filed for recording, under section 751.151.

The medical power of attorney

A medical agent can make any health care decision the principal could make if competent, subject to limits written into the document, under section 166.152(a). That authority does not start until the attending physician certifies in writing, in the medical record, that the principal is incompetent. Even then, section 166.152(c) says treatment cannot be given or withheld over the principal's objection. Section 166.152(f) puts five decisions beyond any agent's reach: voluntary inpatient mental health services, convulsive treatment, psychosurgery, abortion, and neglect through withholding comfort care.

The signing rules differ from the financial document. Section 166.154 allows two routes: sign in front of two witnesses who also sign, or have the signature acknowledged before a notary. Each witness must be a competent adult, and under section 166.003 at least one must be someone other than the named agent, a relative by blood or marriage, an heir or will beneficiary, the attending physician or that physician's staff, certain health facility employees, or a person with a claim against the estate. The document must be in substantially the form printed in section 166.164. Section 166.153 bars the principal's own health care or residential care provider from acting as agent, and their employees too unless related to the principal.

Revoking a medical power is deliberately easy. Under section 166.155(a), oral or written notice to the agent or a provider works, as does any act showing intent to revoke or signing a newer medical power of attorney, and it does not matter whether the principal is competent at the time.

How a power of attorney ends

Section 751.131 lists six events that end a durable power of attorney: the principal's death; revocation; a termination date or event in the document; the purpose being accomplished; the agent's authority ending with no backup agent named; and the qualification of a permanent guardian of the principal's estate. Time alone is not on the list. Section 751.132(b) says authority continues regardless of how long ago the document was signed, unless the document provides otherwise.

Divorce and older documents

Divorce ends a spouse's role by default. Under section 751.132(a)(3), a spouse agent loses authority when the marriage is dissolved by divorce or annulment or declared void, unless the document says otherwise, and section 166.155(a-1) applies the same default to a medical agent. The guide to Texas divorce covers the rest of that process. A newer durable power of attorney does not cancel an older one unless it says so, under section 751.135. And because of section 751.134, anyone who acts in good faith without actual knowledge that a power ended is protected, and their acts still bind the principal.

At death, the will and probate take over

Death ends the agent's authority over the principal's property. What happens to that property next is a different body of law. A valid will names an executor and directs who inherits; the formalities for that document are in what makes a Texas will valid. Without a will, the heirship statutes described in who inherits when there is no will decide. In either case, settling the estate often runs through a court case, the subject of how Texas probate works.

When there is no power of attorney: guardianship

If an adult loses capacity without having signed these documents, there is no agent to act for them. The court-supervised route is guardianship, governed by Estates Code title 3, and the guardianship statutes themselves point back to the documents covered above. Section 1002.0015 lists alternatives to guardianship, and the list includes both a durable power of attorney and a medical power of attorney.

The bar for a guardianship is high. Under section 1101.101(a), the court must find by clear and convincing evidence, among other things, that the person is incapacitated, that a guardian serves the person's best interest, and that alternatives and available supports and services were considered and found not feasible. Section 1002.017 defines an incapacitated adult as one substantially unable, because of a physical or mental condition, to provide food, clothing, or shelter, care for their own physical health, or manage their own finances. Section 1101.102 requires that incapacity be shown by recurring acts or occurrences within the preceding six months, not isolated lapses in judgment.

The two systems also interact. Under section 751.133, a permanent guardian of the estate's qualification automatically revokes the agent's powers unless the court suspends them instead, and the agent must turn over assets and account to the guardian; a temporary guardian's qualification suspends them unless the court affirms the document. For a medical power, section 166.156 leaves the question to the probate court. Whether a guardianship is needed, and what kind, turns on the facts and on the judge. For help finding a lawyer, see free legal help in Texas.

The citations on this page point to the Legislature's own text, the same sourcing used across the full guide library. Guides on wills, heirship, and estate administration sit together in the Texas probate and inheritance hub.