You signed a Power of Attorney, named someone you trust, and filed it away. You felt the quiet relief of having that handled.

But here’s what most families don’t discover until they’re already in crisis: a perfectly valid POA can be rejected by your bank — and there may be very little your family can do about it in the moment.

A Common Example

A parent has a stroke. An adult child who is named as Attorney in Fact goes to the bank to pay bills and keep the household running. The bank says no — or sends the document to their legal department, which can take two to four weeks. The bank may say the document is too old or that they have their own form, and the Minnesota Statutory Short Form that the parent signed isn’t it. The utility bills do not wait. The mortgage does not pause.

What You Can Do Now

Banks aren’t acting in bad faith. They’re protecting themselves from liability. If they allow the wrong person to access an account based on a forged or revoked document, they can be sued. So they err on the side of caution. Sometimes extreme caution. Here are some steps you can take right now to avoid a problem down the road:

• Call your bank and ask whether they have a preferred POA form. If they do, get it filled out and submitted!
• Register your POA with the bank now. This way you can confirm they will accept it. When a crisis happens later, the document is already known. This single step eliminates the most common friction.
• Use the bank or financial institutions’ own forms. Many large institutions — Chase, Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab — have proprietary forms they prefer or require.  
• Check the date on your existing POA document. If it’s more than five years old, consider having it updated.
• Update your POA on a regular basis. I recommend every three to five years. An aging document is an invitation for a bank to say no at the worst possible time.
• Include specific banking authority. The more clearly your agent’s powers are spelled out, the harder it is for a compliance officer to refuse.

A Power of Attorney is not a document you want to test for the first time during a crisis. The best time to find out whether your bank or financial institution will accept it is long before your family needs to use it.