Florida Powers of Attorney
Portia B. Scott, J.D., L.L.M. • April 1, 2025

Myths V. Facts

Of the many documents variations of which can be found on the internet, we have Powers of Attorney (“POAs”). As is the old saying, a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.


With this writing, we are going to explore some of the most prevalent myths about POAs which are, at best, troublesome and, at worst, catastrophic to your plans.


Myth 1: A POA strips from the person who signed it (the Principal) all authority and vests that authority in the person who receives it (the Agent). 


The nightmare I have seen are an Agent waiving the POA around, declaring “I am in charge now,” and “you have to do what I say” regardless of the wishes of the Principal. This is simply untrue. 


A POA will allow another to perform your financial duties. Typically, a POA does not require you to be unable to make informed decisions in order for the POA to be used. The POA duplicates in another person the authority you have over your finances but does not strip from you any of your rights and powers. Now, if you are declared to be incapacitated by a Judge, that would strip you of your authority and the POA could be used to fill in the gaps in your financial care, but the execution by you of a POA does nothing to your own authority.


The POA will be effective even after a Judge, if there were an Incapacity matter filed, says you are incapable of making informed decisions regarding your own finances.


Myth 2: A POA is effective after your death.


It is not. Since a POA duplicates in another person whichever financial authority you chose to give the Agent, and, since when you are dead you cannot do anything, the POA’s usefulness is over. A dead person cannot write checks and neither can his/her Agent using a POA.


In fact, it would might be considered a fraud by the Agent to use the POA after the Principal’s death; it certainly would be void once discovered.


Myth 3: An Agent gets to make the decisions about how the Principal’s money is spent.


Though generally an Agent can spend the Principal’s money, the Agent may only spend the Principal’s money on the things the Principal wants. So, if the Principal wants to send her granddaughter a $100.00 birthday gift and asks the Agent to write her a birthday card with a check in it, that is fine. However, the Agent may not decide to write the check for $1,000.00 nor to include all of the grandchildren. Especially, the Agent may not write herself a check because, she needed the money. If the Agent were to borrow money from the Principal, the Agent should back that up with an I.O.U. (a promissory note) from the Agent to the Principal and keep a record of it.


Certainly, unless there are extraordinary circumstances, the Agent cannot change title to a car or house or boat from the Principal to the Agent or ever to the Agent and Principal together without breaching her fiduciary duty to the Principal.


Myth 4: The Agent can give away some of the duties granted under a POA to another person.


The State of Florida specifically prohibits the Agent from delegating the authority under a POA. If the Agent can not do the act authorized, only the Principal can.


These are just some of the common wrong-headed beliefs regarding Powers of Attorney.  These POA can be very useful in many circumstance, but they do not grant “carte blanche” to the Agent. 


Talk to an attorney about the bounds of a POA, especially if you have been appointed and do not understand the limits on your power thereunder.


Share this article

The time for using unregulated Lady Bird Deeds might be ending.

By By Portia B. Scott, J.D., L.L.M. • September 24, 2026
The time for using unregulated Lady Bird Deeds might be ending.

MY MOTHER, THE GRAMMAR TEACHER, WOULD BE SO PROUD: We Have Our Own "Comma" Case

By Portia B. Scott, J.D., L.L.M. • July 22, 2026
One of the most absurd things for law students to grasp in that all-important first year, is the idea of what can be considered "ambiguous." (Ambiguity is "an uncertainty of meaning or intention, as in a contractual term or statutory provision.") If language is deemed "ambiguous," what happens next depends on where this ambiguity is found. The ambiguity can be subject to interpretation of a Court - if it is in a statute. If the Court has to use interpretation, there are several tools they can use to derive meaning and intent from the writers of the statute. This search for "Legislative intent" is sometimes easy if there is a part of the statute stating specifically what the Legislature was trying to do. Without that, however, judges will look at what the plain and simple language would mean. If that does not help, then they can look at the surrounding language, the other terms, what might be excluded, what would make the language harmonious with the other laws on the topic... All kinds of factors are examined to determine what the law is trying to say. However, if the ambiguity is found in a contract, the options are different and depend on whether the ambiguity is an obvious mistake ("Art is the Buyer" and then, later "The Buyer, Bert" is written in the same contract) or whether it is a more sneaky ambiguity. Here is where the comma comes into play. The Tariff of 1872 misplaced a comma, resulting in fruits not being subject to the tax. The tariff was trying to say that fruits and fruit plants would be subject to the tariff, but, by placing a comma where it did not belong, fruits become tax free and only fruit-bearing plants were subject to the Tariff. Another is a case where there would be no overtime payments for work done for "...drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution" of foods. Because there was no comma between "shipment" and "distribution," the Court found it questionable if "shipment and distribution" were one joint act or two separate ones. The result? Workers got their overtime payments. Now, we have a case, decided July 22, 2026 by our appellate court, that a comma found between "construed according to the laws of the State of Florida" and "with venue in Collier County," created an ambiguity allowing venue to be set in another County (Martin). The comma controlled and there is an ambiguity, allowing the action to be filed in Martin County, rather than Collier. The benefits of filing in one county verses another, well, that would be an entirely different article.  Just remember: Watch those punctuation marks folks! Ambiguities may be found everywhere!