A POA may be specific.  It gives a specific power; say to sell your car.  This person, called an attorney-in-fact, acts as your agent to do the specific act granted by the POA you designate.  Next a POA may be general.  It gives your agent the power to do anything you are legally able to do.  For example: to sign a contract to sell/buy property; to write checks on your bank accounts: or to sell stocks or your personal property.  These actions are binding on you unless you restrict this power to a specific task or tasks as mentioned above.  Therefore, you may need to have several specific POA’s if there is no one person you wish to trust with all power of a general POA.

 Most POA’s are limited to a specific happening, for example, selling the car; or event (your return from Iraq) and then terminatfe.  They may also terminate at a specific date.  All POA’s terminate upon your death.  They also terminate when you become legally disabled or incompetent (each state law may vary in defining disability or incompetence), unless you state the POA is a durable POA and survives your incapacity.

 Finally, a Power of Attorney may still be active even after you revoke it.  You must send notification of your revocation to any entity that may have a copy on file. If you have become or incapacitated or even died, any holder of a power of attorney may continue to use it until notice of the revocation has been received.