Utah: Power of Attorney Requirements

The short answer

Utah's Uniform Power of Attorney Act, recently renumbered from Title 75,
Chapter 9 to Title 75A, Chapter 2 (effective September 1, 2024), requires
something most Uniform Power of Attorney Act states treat as optional:
notarization. Under § 75A-2-105, a principal may sign a power of attorney —
or direct someone else to sign it in the principal's conscious presence —
only "if the power of attorney is signed before a notary public or other
individual authorized by the law to take acknowledgments." No witnesses are
required. The principal must also have "sufficient mental capacity... to
understand that the principal is appointing an agent to handle the
principal's financial affairs," though understanding exactly how the agent
will manage those affairs is not required.

The power of attorney is durable by default (§ 75A-2-104) and can be written
to take effect later, at a future date or event such as incapacity
(§ 75A-2-109). Since May 6, 2026, a separate Utah act (Title 75, Chapter 13)
lets the signature and notarization be completed electronically, as long as
the electronic process satisfies the same substantive requirements as the
paper process.

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Utah's financial power of attorney law is the Uniform Power of Attorney Act,
originally enacted in 2016 (H.B. 74, eff. May 10, 2016) as Title 75, Chapter
9, and renumbered without substantive change to Title 75A, Chapter 2 by the
2024 Estate Planning Recodification (S.B. 79), effective September 1, 2024.
The chapter has since been amended further, most recently by Chapter 338 of
the 2025 General Session.

Who must sign

Section 75A-2-105(1)(a) lets "a principal... sign a power of attorney, or
direct another individual in the principal's conscious presence to sign the
principal's name," but only if two conditions are both met: the signing "is
signed before a notary public or other individual authorized by the law to
take acknowledgments," and "the principal has sufficient mental capacity at
the time... to understand that the principal is appointing an agent to
handle the principal's financial affairs." The statute is explicit that
understanding how the agent will manage those affairs is not part of that
capacity standard (§ 75A-2-105(1)(c)).

Notarization

Required — not optional. Unlike the standard Uniform Power of Attorney Act
pattern, where notarization only creates a presumption of genuineness, Utah's
§ 75A-2-105(1)(a)(i) makes signing "before a notary public or other individual
authorized by the law to take acknowledgments" a condition of the signing
itself. Section 75A-2-105(1)(b) separately notes that an acknowledged
signature "is presumed to be genuine," but that presumption doesn't change the
fact that notarization is baked into the execution requirement.

Witnesses

None. Section 75A-2-105 — the entire execution section — names only the
notarization requirement and the mental-capacity standard; no witness
requirement appears anywhere in the chapter for a financial power of attorney.

Statutory form

Yes. Section 75A-2-301 provides an optional form: "A document substantially in
the following form may be used to create a statutory form power of attorney
that has the meaning and effect prescribed by this chapter." Utah's courts
also publish a fillable version of this same statutory form for self-help
use.

Durable by default?

Yes. Under § 75A-2-104, a power of attorney "created under this chapter is
durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity
of the principal." Silence produces a durable document.

Springing POA allowed?

Yes. Section 75A-2-109(1) makes a power of attorney "effective when executed
unless the principal provides in the power of attorney that it becomes
effective at a future date or upon the occurrence of a future event or
contingency." The principal may authorize someone to determine in writing
that the event occurred (§ 75A-2-109(2)). If the event is incapacity and no
one is authorized or willing, § 75A-2-109(3) falls back to a physician for the
general "impairment" category of incapacity, or to an attorney, judge, or
appropriate government official for the missing/detained/abroad category.

Real estate extras

Utah answers this inside the Act itself rather than in a separate real
property statute. Section 75A-2-106(4) provides that "a photocopy or
electronically transmitted copy of an original power of attorney has the same
effect as the original," and specifically that "[f]or transactions involving
real property, the copy of the power of attorney may be recorded in the
county where the transaction lies when attached to an affidavit of the person
accepting the power of attorney."

Out-of-state POAs

Yes. Section 75A-2-106(3) validates a power of attorney "executed other than
in this state" if its execution complied with either the law that governs its
"meaning and effect" under § 75A-2-107, or the federal military power of
attorney statute, 10 U.S.C. § 1044b. Section 75A-2-107 looks first to the
jurisdiction named in the document and, absent that, to the jurisdiction where
it was executed.

What trips people up

• Notarization is not optional here. Principals used to the usual UPOAA
  notary-or-witness choice (or no formality at all) may not realize Utah
  treats a notary as mandatory for a valid signing, not just as a genuineness
  presumption (§ 75A-2-105(1)(a)(i)).
• Care-facility agents are restricted. A principal who resides or is
  about to reside in a hospital, assisted living, or skilled nursing facility
  may not name that facility's owner, operator, provider, or employee as
  agent unless the agent is the principal's spouse, legal guardian, or next
  of kin, or the agent's authority is strictly limited to establishing
  Medicaid eligibility (§ 75A-2-105(2)). Violating this is itself a criminal
  offense under Section 76-5-111.4.
• Electronic execution is now available, but check the details. Since May
  6, 2026, the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act (Title 75,
  ch. 13) lets an electronic signature and electronic notarization satisfy
  § 75A-2-105, as long as the notarizing individual attaches their own
  electronic signature along with the information other law requires
  (§ 75-13-206). This is a genuinely new option — older secondary sources
  written before mid-2026 will not mention it.
• The chapter was renumbered in 2024. Older documents, forms, and
  secondary sources may still cite the pre-2024 numbering (Title 75, Chapter
  9); the substance is unchanged, only the section numbers moved to Title
  75A, Chapter 2.

Common questions

Does my Utah power of attorney need to be notarized? Yes. Notarization
(or acknowledgment before another officer authorized to take acknowledgments)
is a condition of valid execution under § 75A-2-105, not merely optional.

Does it need witnesses? No. Utah's Uniform Power of Attorney Act has no
witness requirement for a financial power of attorney.

Will my power of attorney survive if I become incapacitated? Yes, unless
the document expressly says it terminates on incapacity (§ 75A-2-104).

Can I sign my power of attorney electronically? As of May 6, 2026, yes —
the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act allows an electronic
signature and electronic notarization to satisfy § 75A-2-105's requirements,
as long as the process meets that act's conditions.

Statutes and sources

All quotations are from the official Utah Legislature website (le.utah.gov),
accessed 2026-07-04.

• Utah Code § 75A-2-104 — "A power of attorney created under this chapter
  is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the
  incapacity of the principal."
  View official text (le.utah.gov)
• Utah Code § 75A-2-105 — "A principal may sign a power of attorney, or
  direct another individual in the principal's conscious presence to sign the
  principal's name on the power of attorney, if: (i) the power of attorney is
  signed before a notary public or other individual authorized by the law to
  take acknowledgments; and (ii) the principal has sufficient mental capacity
  at the time that the power of attorney is executed to understand that the
  principal is appointing an agent to handle the principal's financial
  affairs."
  View official text (le.utah.gov)
• Utah Code § 75A-2-106 — "For transactions involving real property, the
  copy of the power of attorney may be recorded in the county where the
  transaction lies when attached to an affidavit of the person accepting the
  power of attorney."
  View official text (le.utah.gov)
• Utah Code § 75A-2-107 — "The meaning and effect of a power of attorney
  is determined by the law of the jurisdiction indicated in the power of
  attorney and, in the absence of an indication of jurisdiction, by the law of
  the jurisdiction in which the power of attorney was executed."
  View official text (le.utah.gov)
• Utah Code § 75A-2-109 — "A power of attorney is effective when executed
  unless the principal provides in the power of attorney that it becomes
  effective at a future date or upon the occurrence of a future event or
  contingency."
  View official text (le.utah.gov)
• Utah Code § 75A-2-301 — "A document substantially in the following form
  may be used to create a statutory form power of attorney that has the
  meaning and effect prescribed by this chapter."
  View official text (le.utah.gov)
• Utah Code § 75-13-206 (enacted by 2026 H.B. 181, eff. 2026-05-06) — "If
  other law of this state requires a signature or record to be notarized,
  acknowledged, verified or made under oath, the requirement is satisfied
  with respect to an electronic non-testamentary estate planning document if
  an individual authorized to perform the notarization... attaches or
  logically associates the individual's electronic signature on the
  document."
  View official text (le.utah.gov)