What Powers Can Be Included in a POA?

A power of attorney can cover almost every part of your financial life, from a single bank account to your entire estate. Knowing which powers come standard and which must be spelled out is the key to building one that actually protects you. The Law Office of Chad Foster helps Snohomish County clients with power-of-attorney planning.

Two Kinds of Authority

When you create a power of attorney, you are deciding how much of your life your agent can step into. Washington's Uniform Power of Attorney Act, chapter 11.125 RCW, gives you flexibility to grant a little or a lot, but it organizes that authority into two very different categories. The first is general authority you can grant by subject area. The second is a short list of sensitive powers that only take effect if you expressly grant them. Understanding the split is what separates a document that works from one that either does too little or quietly does too much.

General Authority You Grant by Subject

Most of what people want an agent to handle falls under general authority, which you can grant by naming subject areas. RCW 11.125.260 describes what a principal authorizes an agent to do with respect to a subject when the power of attorney incorporates that subject by reference or grants the agent authority to do all acts the principal could do. In practice, this lets you turn on broad, practical powers by category rather than listing every conceivable transaction. For related guidance, see How Do I Protect Against POA Abuse.

Under RCW 11.125.260, once a subject is granted, the agent may generally demand and receive money or property you are entitled to and use it for your intended purposes, enter into and modify contracts, execute and record documents, pursue or settle claims and litigation, hire and pay professionals such as attorneys, accountants, and investment managers, deal with government agencies on your behalf, access and send communications for you, and do any lawful act connected to that subject. That is a deep and flexible set of tools, and it attaches to whichever subjects you choose to include. For related guidance, see What Happens If My POA Agent Becomes Incapacitated.

The subjects themselves are the familiar building blocks of financial life. The Act allows authority over categories such as real property, tangible personal property, stocks and bonds, commodities and options, banks and other financial institutions, business operations, insurance and annuities, estates and trusts, claims and litigation, personal and family maintenance, benefits from government programs, retirement plans, and taxes. You can grant authority over all of these, or select only the ones that fit your situation. A person who wants an agent only to manage a single account can keep the grant narrow. A person planning for possible long-term incapacity often grants broad authority across most or all subjects so the agent can manage everything if needed.

The Powers That Require an Express Grant

Then there is the short list of powers the law refuses to hand over automatically, no matter how broadly you word the rest of the document. RCW 11.125.240 sets these apart and provides that an agent may exercise them only if the power of attorney expressly grants that specific authority. These are the powers that can change where your property ultimately goes, which is why the law insists you decide about each one deliberately.

Under RCW 11.125.240, the powers requiring an express grant include creating, amending, revoking, or terminating a living trust, making a gift, creating or changing rights of survivorship, creating or changing a beneficiary designation, delegating the agent's authority, waiving your rights as beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity, exercising fiduciary powers you could delegate, exercising a power of appointment in favor of someone other than you, creating or changing a community property agreement, and making certain nonprobate transfers at death. Because these powers can rewrite your estate plan or move assets outside of it, a general grant of authority is not enough to unlock them. The document has to say so in plain, specific terms.

The Act reinforces the point with a further guardrail. Under RCW 11.125.240, unless the document provides otherwise, an agent who is not your ancestor, spouse, state registered domestic partner, or descendant generally cannot use these powers to create an interest in your property for themselves or for someone they are obligated to support. That protection blocks a common form of abuse even where sensitive powers have been granted.

Building the Right Combination

Because the Act separates broad everyday authority from these sensitive powers, a good power of attorney is really a set of deliberate choices rather than a single yes or no. You decide which subjects your agent can handle, and separately you decide whether to unlock any of the express-grant powers. A document that grants broad general authority but no gifting or trust powers gives an agent full ability to manage your day-to-day finances while keeping your estate plan locked. A document that adds specific express powers can support more advanced planning, such as funding a trust or continuing an established pattern of gifting, when that is what you actually want.

This is also why generic, fill-in-the-blank forms so often disappoint. They may grant too little, leaving an agent unable to act when a crisis hits, or grant too much through vague catch-all language that an agent could stretch in ways you never intended. Matching the powers to your real goals is the whole point of doing it thoughtfully.

Design Your Power of Attorney in Snohomish County

The range of powers a Washington power of attorney can include is wide, but the difference between broad general authority and the express-grant powers matters enormously to how your plan turns out. If you want a power of attorney that grants exactly the authority you intend, no more and no less, the Law Office of Chad Foster helps Snohomish County families make those choices with confidence. Reach out to build a document tailored to your life.