A duly authorized representative is a person who has been given legal permission, usually in writing, to act on someone else’s behalf and make decisions that bind that person as if they had made the decisions themselves. The appointment is typically created through a power of attorney, a corporate resolution, or an agency-specific form, and the representative takes on strict legal duties the moment they start acting. You’ll run into the role in ordinary places: a real estate closing, an IRS audit, a hospital bedside, a bank branch.
How the Authority Gets Created
The most common route is a power of attorney. The person granting the authority (the principal) signs a document naming someone else (the agent) and spelling out what that agent can do. To hold up, the document has to identify both parties, describe the scope of authority, and carry the principal’s signature. Most states also require that signature to be witnessed, notarized, or both.
In a company, the authority usually comes from a board resolution. The board names a specific officer or employee as the authorized representative for a defined purpose, such as signing contracts, opening bank accounts, or applying for government grants. When outside parties need proof of signing authority, the company may issue a certificate of incumbency listing the names, titles, and appointment dates of its officers.
Government agencies often require their own appointment forms instead of, or alongside, a general power of attorney. The IRS, Social Security Administration, and Department of Veterans Affairs all run their own processes, covered further down.
Financial and Healthcare Representatives Are Separate
Representative authority generally falls into two lanes, and this trips people up: naming someone to handle your money does not automatically give them authority over your medical care, and vice versa. They are created through separate documents.
A financial power of attorney covers things like managing bank accounts, paying bills, filing taxes, buying or selling property, and handling investments. The scope can be sweeping or narrow. Some financial powers cover every aspect of a person’s financial life; others authorize a single transaction, like signing the closing documents on a house.
A healthcare power of attorney (sometimes called a healthcare proxy or medical power of attorney) names someone to make medical decisions when the principal cannot communicate. The National Institute on Aging notes that a healthcare proxy should be someone familiar with your values and wishes, and that the document helps you plan for situations that cannot be foreseen, like a serious car accident or stroke.1National Institute on Aging. Advance Care Planning: Advance Directives for Health Care A healthcare agent’s authority usually extends to treatment choices, facility selection, and end-of-life decisions, within whatever boundaries the document and state law set.
Durable and Springing Authority
A standard power of attorney stops working the moment the principal loses mental capacity. That is the opposite of what most people want from one, since incapacity is often exactly when the agent is needed. Two variations address the gap.
A durable power of attorney includes language stating that the agent’s authority survives the principal’s incapacity. The agent can keep paying bills and managing investments even if the principal develops dementia or suffers a brain injury. A majority of states have adopted some version of the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, which gives a standardized framework for how durable powers work. For future planning, durability is almost always the right choice.
A springing power of attorney takes the opposite approach. It lies dormant until a specific triggering event, usually the principal’s incapacity. The practical catch: someone (typically a physician) has to formally certify that the principal can no longer make their own decisions before the agent can act. That certification can take time. The doctor has to agree the condition meets whatever definition of incapacity the document uses, and medical privacy rules can make even starting that conversation difficult. Many estate planning attorneys steer clients toward an immediately effective durable power of attorney for that reason.
What a Representative Must Do
Every duly authorized representative owes the principal a fiduciary duty, which is the highest standard of care the law imposes on any relationship. The core rule is simple: act loyally and solely in the principal’s interest. In practice, it breaks down into several concrete obligations.
The representative must avoid self-dealing. Using the principal’s money to benefit yourself, buying the principal’s property at a discount, or steering decisions to enrich yourself are all violations. Assets must stay separate, which means no commingling the principal’s funds with your own. And the representative has to keep detailed records of every transaction, including receipts, bank statements, and logs showing how money was spent or invested. When service ends, the representative may be required to deliver a full accounting to the principal, the principal’s family, or a court.
Breach of these duties carries real consequences. A court can remove the representative, order repayment of losses, and in cases of intentional misconduct or gross negligence, hold them personally liable for damages. Conduct that rises to embezzlement or fraud can bring criminal charges.
What a Representative Cannot Do
Even a broadly worded appointment has hard limits. Some acts are considered so personal that no one can perform them for you. A representative cannot make or change your will. They cannot vote in an election for you. They cannot contract a marriage on your behalf. And once the principal dies, the representative’s authority ends immediately. Managing the estate from that point forward is the job of an executor through probate, not the former agent.
Beyond those absolute limits, the representative is bound by whatever the document itself says. An agent authorized to manage a checking account who then tries to sell the principal’s house has overstepped, and the transaction may be voidable.
Government Agency Appointments
IRS
To deal with the IRS on someone else’s behalf, you file Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative.2Internal Revenue Service. About Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative The IRS will not accept just anyone the taxpayer names. The representative has to fall into one of several designated categories:
- Attorney admitted to practice in a state
- Certified Public Accountant licensed in a state
- Enrolled Agent holding an IRS-issued enrollment card
- Family member, limited to a spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or step-relative
- Officer or full-time employee of the taxpayer’s business, identified by title
Unenrolled tax return preparers can represent a taxpayer, but only during examination of a return they personally prepared. If you only want someone to receive your tax information without power to represent you in a dispute, Form 8821 (Tax Information Authorization) is the right filing instead.3Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848
Social Security Administration
The SSA uses a two-form process. The representative first completes a one-time registration using Form SSA-1699, which assigns a unique Representative Identification number.4Social Security Administration. Representative Registration Form SSA-1699 The SSA will not process any appointment until this registration is on file. After that, the claimant and representative both sign Form SSA-1696, Claimant’s Appointment of a Representative, to formalize the relationship for a specific claim.5Social Security Administration. Claimant’s Appointment of a Representative SSA-1696 You do not need to appoint a representative just because someone drives you to the SSA office or reads documents to you. The appointment is only required when the person will actually act on your behalf or appear before the SSA for you.
Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans working on VA benefits have two forms depending on who they want representing them. VA Form 21-22 appoints a Veterans Service Organization.6Veterans Affairs. About VA Form 21-22 To name a specific individual, such as an attorney or claims agent, you use VA Form 21-22a.7Veterans Affairs. About VA Form 21-22a Both can be submitted online or by mailing the PDF.
When a Bank or Other Third Party Refuses to Accept the Document
One of the most frustrating real-world problems is getting banks, brokerages, and other institutions to actually honor a power of attorney. A representative can show up with a valid document only to have an employee refuse the transaction because the form “looks old,” isn’t on the institution’s template, or just makes someone nervous.
Most states that have adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act include provisions that penalize institutions for unreasonably refusing a valid document. The typical remedy lets the agent go to court to compel acceptance, and the institution that wrongly refused may be ordered to pay the agent’s attorney fees and costs. Some states impose specific deadlines, often five to seven business days, for an institution to accept or formally reject the document after it is presented.
A practical workaround many attorneys recommend: have the principal deliver a copy of the power of attorney to their bank or brokerage at the time it is signed, so the institution can place it on file. It is far easier to clear the paperwork in advance than to argue about it at a teller window during a crisis.
How the Authority Ends
The principal can revoke a representative’s authority at any time, as long as the principal is still mentally competent. The revocation should be in writing, and many states require it to be notarized. Writing it is not enough on its own. You have to deliver a copy to the former representative and notify any third parties who have been relying on the document, including banks, healthcare providers, and business partners. Until a third party receives actual notice, they may be legally justified in continuing to honor the old appointment.
Authority also terminates automatically in several situations. The death of the principal ends a standard power of attorney immediately. The authority ends if the document carries an expiration date and that date passes. It ends when the specific task the representative was appointed for is completed. In many states, if the principal and agent are married and a divorce or legal separation is filed, the agent’s authority terminates unless the document specifically says otherwise.