[WSBAPT] DPA acceptance study: request for input

[Karen E. Boxx]

Listmates:

I am working on a new project for the ABA Real Property, Trust and Estate section regarding powers of attorney and would like to enlist your help. I am seeking information regarding your experiences with difficulties you have encountered getting powers of attorney forms accepted by various financial institutions, including large brokerage firms, national or regional banks or credit unions, and retirement plan administrators and custodians
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Many people are experiencing issues with valid powers of attorney being accepted by various financial institutions. Financial institutions are refusing to honor witnessed and notarized power of attorney forms. Instead, they insist that the account owners sign the financial institution's power of attorney forms or set up other roadblocks. Unfortunately, by this point, the individual required to sign may no longer be competent to do so.  The Uniform Power of Attorney Act includes provisions addressing this issue (such as requiring the institution to pay attorney fees if the attorney-in-fact has to go to court to enforce) but the problem persists. This problem is well-known to attorneys and has been getting national attention.  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/health/finding-out-your-power-of-attorney-is-powerless.html?mwrsm=Email Through this project, we hope to collect specific information about the types of resistance to powers of attorney and then reach out to financial institutions and work with them to improve the usefulness of this critical part of a person's estate plan.

Specifically, we are interested in responses that address the following questions:

*      What problems have you encountered while attempting to have a financial institution accept a power of attorney?

*      With what financial institutions have you encountered these issues?

*      Has the Uniform Power of Attorney Act improved this issue in any states? If so, how and in which states?

*      What other problems have you encountered with acceptance of a power of attorney (including acceptance by retirement plans for tasks such as change of beneficiary)?



If you are interested in sharing your experiences, please respond off list to my research assistant Cara Compesi at ccompesi at uw.edu<mailto:ccompesi at uw.edu> or to me at kboxx at uw.edu<mailto:kboxx at uw.edu>.

Please feel free to share this email with others not on the list who may have stories to share.



Professor Karen E. Boxx
University of Washington School of Law
Box 353020
Seattle, WA 98195-3020
206.616.3856


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