How Do I Monitor a Power of Attorney Agent?

Handing someone authority over your finances is an act of trust, but trust and oversight are not opposites. Washington law gives you real tools to keep an eye on how your agent uses a power of attorney, and building that oversight into your plan protects both you and the person you name.

Your Agent Is Already Required to Keep Records

Monitoring an agent starts with a duty the law imposes automatically. Under RCW 11.125.140, an agent who accepts appointment under a power of attorney must act in your best interest, act in good faith, stay within the authority you granted, and, importantly, keep a record of all receipts, disbursements, and transactions made on your behalf. That recordkeeping duty applies even if your document says nothing about it. So the moment your agent begins acting, there should be a paper trail behind every dollar that moves.

This matters because it means an accounting is not something your agent gets to invent from memory later. The expectation, built into the statute, is that a careful agent tracks the money as it happens. When you or someone acting for you later asks what was done and why, the answer should already exist in the records.

Who Can Demand an Accounting, and When

The right to see those records is not unlimited, and it helps to understand who holds it. Under RCW 11.125.140, unless your power of attorney provides otherwise, an agent is not required to disclose receipts, disbursements, or transactions except when ordered by a court or requested in writing by a defined group of people. That group includes you, the principal, along with a guardian, a conservator, another fiduciary acting for you, and a governmental agency with authority to protect your welfare. After your death, it also includes the personal representative or successor in interest of your estate.

The same statute puts a clock on the response. When a proper written request comes in, the agent has thirty days to comply or to provide a writing explaining why more time is needed, and in that case the agent must comply within an additional thirty days. When the request comes from a guardian, conservator, or other fiduciary, it must be limited to information reasonably related to that person's duties. So while you retain a strong right to demand an accounting at any time, the law channels requests from others through people who have a legitimate role in protecting you.

Building Oversight Into the Document Itself

Because the statute lets you override its default disclosure rules, one of the most effective ways to monitor an agent is to write oversight directly into your power of attorney. Since RCW 11.125.140 begins its disclosure limits with the phrase "except as otherwise provided in the power of attorney," you can use the document to require more transparency than the law's baseline.

A common approach is to require the agent to provide periodic accountings on a set schedule, for example every quarter or every year, without anyone having to ask. Another is to name a monitor, a trusted third person who is entitled to receive copies of the agent's accountings and records even though that monitor holds no authority to act. A monitor cannot spend your money or make decisions, but a monitor can watch. That second set of eyes is often the single most powerful safeguard you can put in place, because problems tend to surface fastest when someone independent is reviewing the numbers on a regular basis.

You can also spell out what the accountings must contain, such as account statements, receipts for significant purchases, and an explanation of any transaction that benefits the agent. The more clearly your document defines the expectation, the harder it is for a well-meaning agent to drift and the easier it is to spot the rare agent who is not well-meaning.

Choosing the Right Person Is Still the Foundation

No monitoring structure substitutes for choosing carefully in the first place. RCW 11.125.140 also requires an agent to act loyally, to avoid conflicts of interest that impair impartial judgment, and to act with the care, competence, and diligence ordinarily exercised by agents in similar circumstances. Those duties are enforceable, but enforcement after the fact is slower and more painful than prevention. Pick someone whose judgment and integrity you already trust, then use accountings and a monitor to reinforce that choice rather than to compensate for a shaky one.

For families across Snohomish County, this combination of a trustworthy agent, mandatory periodic accountings, and an independent monitor tends to work well. It respects the agent, who usually welcomes a clear record that shows the job was done right, while giving you and your loved ones confidence that the authority you granted is being used the way you intended.

If you would like to build meaningful oversight into a new or existing power of attorney, the Law Office of Chad Foster can help you tailor the document to fit your family. Contact us to start the conversation.