How it works. Pick the state and whether the document is financial or healthcare. You get the signing steps in order (official form, notary, witnesses, the agent's acknowledgment, recording for real estate), each marked required, optional or not confirmed, with the official link.
Build a signing checklist
Michigan: financial power of attorney
1 step required
- Recommended or optionalStatutory formStart from the official form: Statutory form power of attorney (MCL 556.401). Section 301 of the act sets out a statutory form. Have a lawyer review it before anyone signs. Open the official form
- Your choice of twoNotary or witnessesSign in front of a notary, or in front of witnesses instead. To be durable: acknowledged before a notary, or signed before two witnesses who also sign.
"Be acknowledged by the principal before a notary public or other individual authorized to take acknowledgments."
- Your choice of twoWitnessesIf you skip the notary: two witnesses. Two witnesses as the alternative to a notary. A witness can't be an agent named in it; a witness may also be the notary.
"A witness may not be an agent nominated in the power."
- RequiredAgent's acknowledgmentThe agent signs before acting. Before acting under a durable power of attorney, the agent signs an acknowledgment of duties, substantially in the statute's form (MCL 556.402).
"Before exercising authority under a durable power of attorney, an agent shall execute an acknowledgment"
- Not requiredRecording for real estateThe act has no recording requirement; a power to convey real property doesn't need the legal description. A title company or county recorder may still ask for a recorded copy.
"does not need to contain the real property's legal description."
- Good to knowDurable after incapacityDurable if executed with a notary or two witnesses, unless it says incapacity ends it.
"is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity of the principal."
Official sources: Uniform Power of Attorney Act, Act 187 of 2023 (Michigan Legislature) · Planning for Your Peace of Mind (Michigan Legislature, revised 12/2025) · More on this state
Print this page to take to the signing.
On the day
The principal signs in front of the notary and any witnesses, after the notary checks ID. If the principal is in a hospital or care home, see notarizing a power of attorney in a hospital; for medical decisions, see signing a healthcare proxy. For every state on one page, see power of attorney requirements by state.
Signing in New Jersey? MCC Solutions provides mobile notarization, hospital notarization and remote online notarization for New Jersey signers. Elsewhere, a local notary can help.
General information, not legal advice; we are not lawyers. Checked November 2026 against the official pages linked in each checklist. Signing rules change, and a power of attorney gives someone real control over money or medical decisions: have a lawyer prepare or review it. A notary identifies the signer and completes the certificate; a notary doesn't draft the document or explain what it does.
Questions about the checklist
Which state's rules apply?
Pick the state whose law the document is made under, usually where the principal lives and signs. When the principal lives in one state and the property or the bank is in another, ask a lawyer which state's form and signing rules to follow.
What do the labels mean?
Required is a stated condition on the official page. Your choice of two means a notary or witnesses will do. Recommended or optional means the law doesn't demand it but it helps in practice. Not confirmed means no official page we opened said, so nothing is guessed.
Can the agent be a witness or the notary?
Where our sources list witness rules, the agent is barred (Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania), and some also bar relatives, heirs or caregivers (Arizona, Illinois, Washington). Pennsylvania and Iowa say the agent can't take the acknowledgment.
Is this a power of attorney form?
No. The checklist tells you how a document is signed, and links the state's official form where one exists. Have a lawyer prepare or review the power of attorney itself.
Does the checklist save what I choose?
No. The page reads your choices from the address bar and builds the list on the server. Nothing is stored, and it works without JavaScript.