The document should be duly witnessed by a lawyer or a notary public. For the durable power of attorney, you should seek guidance from your private lawyer when doing the provisions or content of the document. Is it possible to make a power of attorney if I get mentally incapacitated? It is not in any way possible to do so. Aside from issues about the agent s trustworthiness, another common problem with the power of attorney is that the authority is too broad. When the principal uses the general power of attorney, the agent would find himself handling real estate, securities and large financial transactions. To avoid this problem, the power of attorney should be specific enough. Your POA can do practically any transaction on your behalf. Powers of attorney are also intended to avoid certain situations that may cause the court to choose a conservator or a guardian to act on everything on your behalf. When the court does that, you won t have any say as to who it will appoint as your guardian it may be one of your family members or someone else. A power of attorney will only last on the stated date and if there is no date specified, it will cease to be effective when the principal becomes gravely ill, incapacitated or mentally incompetent. The Health Care power of attorney is one that allows a grantee of the document to decide on your health care service should the principal be deemed incapable of making a decision. You could have the option not to include specifications or instructions that would give your agent the permission to transfer to himself/herself any of your property or bank account. The law usually allows the agent to transfer your assets to your spouse (if your agent is not your spouse). However, the law does not allow him/her to transfer any of your properties to any other individuals, even your children. it would only be valid, if there are doctor or doctors which identified that the principal is indeed incapacitated. However, it may pose some problems since mentally incapacitated is defined subjectively and difficult to determine. So it is not recommended that durable power of attorney would be springing.