Choosing someone to act as your Power of Attorney is one of the most significant decisions you’ll make in your estate planning process. This isn’t paperwork you fill out and forget about. You’re selecting someone who could one day manage your finances, handle your property, and make decisions that will directly affect your life and legacy. In Georgia, the stakes are real, the legal requirements are specific, and getting this wrong can create problems that ripple through your family for years.
Let’s walk through what you actually need to know.
Understanding What You’re Really Asking Someone To Do
Before you start thinking about names, you need to understand exactly what a Power of Attorney does in Georgia. Under the Georgia Power of Attorney Act, found in Title 10, Chapter 6B of the Official Code of Georgia, a POA authorizes another person—called your agent—to make decisions about your property and financial matters on your behalf.
This is not a ceremonial title. Your agent can access your bank accounts, sell your real estate, manage your investments, pay your bills, file your taxes, and handle business transactions. They can do all of this whether or not you’re able to act for yourself. In Georgia, POAs are presumed to be “durable,” meaning the authority continues even if you become incapacitated—unless you specifically state otherwise in the document.
There’s also the healthcare side of things. Georgia replaced the old Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare with the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care back in 2007. This document lets you name a healthcare agent who can make medical decisions when you can’t communicate with doctors yourself. The person you choose for financial decisions doesn’t have to be the same person who handles your healthcare decisions, and there are good reasons to think carefully about whether those roles should be separated.
The Non-Negotiable Qualities
Certain qualities aren’t preferences—they’re requirements if you want this arrangement to actually work.
Trustworthiness sits at the top of the list, and it’s worth being honest with yourself about what that means. This person will have access to your money. They could drain your accounts, sell your property, or make financial decisions that benefit themselves at your expense. Georgia law requires agents to act in your best interest and within the authority you’ve granted them, but enforcement happens after the damage is done. The legal system can hold a bad actor liable, but it can’t undo the harm. You need someone whose integrity you’d stake your financial security on, because that’s exactly what you’re doing.
Competence matters just as much. Managing someone else’s financial life requires organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to navigate bureaucracy. Your agent will deal with banks, government agencies, insurance companies, and potentially attorneys and accountants. They need to keep records, meet deadlines, and make sound decisions under pressure. A person with a good heart but poor financial judgment isn’t the right choice. Neither is someone who can’t manage their own affairs, regardless of how much they love you.
Availability is the practical consideration people often overlook. Your agent needs to be reachable and able to act when situations arise. Someone who travels constantly for work, lives across the country, or has their own complicated life circumstances may not be able to respond when you need them. Georgia allows you to name co-agents who can act together or independently, but that arrangement creates its own coordination challenges. You can also name successor agents—backup choices who step in if your primary agent can’t serve. Think about who would actually be available when it counts.
Age and Relationship Considerations
Georgia law allows you to name any competent adult as your agent. Beyond that minimum requirement, the choice is yours. Most people look first to family members—a spouse, adult child, sibling, or parent. There’s logic to this. Family members typically know your values, understand your financial situation, and have a vested interest in your wellbeing.
But family dynamics complicate things. Naming one adult child over another can create resentment that lasts long after you’re gone. A spouse might be the obvious choice until you consider that many situations requiring POA use involve both spouses being affected—a car accident, a shared health crisis, age-related decline that happens to both partners. Siblings may have their own financial pressures or family obligations that create conflicts of interest.
If you’re married and name your spouse as your agent in Georgia, there’s a specific rule you need to know: if either of you files for divorce, your spouse’s authority as your agent automatically terminates—unless you’ve specified otherwise in your POA. The document itself remains valid, and any successor agent you’ve named would step into the role. But this is the kind of detail that catches people off guard during already difficult times.
Consider age carefully. If you’re in your sixties and name a parent in their eighties, you may need that POA at a time when your agent is no longer capable of serving. Younger agents have the advantage of likely being around and competent when you need them, but they may lack financial experience or the maturity to handle serious responsibilities. There’s no perfect formula here, just factors to weigh.
The Case For and Against Professional Agents
Some people choose to name an attorney, accountant, or professional fiduciary as their agent instead of a family member. This approach has real advantages. Professionals bring expertise, objectivity, and clear boundaries. They won’t make emotional decisions or let family politics influence their judgment. They understand financial management and legal requirements.
The downsides are also real. Professional agents charge for their services—Georgia law says your agent isn’t entitled to compensation unless you specify otherwise in the POA, but professionals will certainly require payment. They also don’t know you personally. They won’t understand that you’d never want to sell your childhood home or that you’ve always supported a particular charity. They’ll make technically correct decisions that may not reflect your values or preferences.
A middle path some people choose: name a trusted family member as agent but specify in the document that they should consult with your attorney or financial advisor on significant decisions. This keeps someone who knows you in the driver’s seat while providing professional guidance.
Healthcare Agent Considerations
The person who makes your medical decisions faces different challenges than the one handling your finances. Your healthcare agent needs to be able to advocate for you with doctors and hospital staff. They need to understand your values about quality of life, end-of-life care, and medical intervention. They need to make hard calls under emotional pressure, potentially including decisions about life support.
Georgia’s Advance Directive for Health Care form lets you provide guidance to your healthcare agent about your treatment preferences. You can specify your wishes about artificial nutrition, hydration, ventilators, and other interventions. But no document can anticipate every medical scenario. Your agent will face judgment calls, and they need to know you well enough to make decisions you’d agree with.
Georgia law does restrict who can serve as your healthcare agent: your doctor or healthcare provider cannot take this role. That limitation exists to prevent conflicts of interest. Beyond that, you have the same freedom to choose any competent adult.
One practical note: if you name your spouse as healthcare agent and you later get married to someone else, your original agent’s authority automatically terminates unless your new spouse was already your agent. Divorce has the same effect on a spouse’s authority. These automatic terminations are built into Georgia law to reflect the reality that family circumstances change.
The Conversation You Need To Have
Here’s what separates people who make good POA choices from those who regret theirs: they actually talk to their potential agent before finalizing anything.
This conversation serves multiple purposes. First, it confirms the person is willing to serve. Being named as someone’s POA is a responsibility, not an honor. Some people don’t want it. They may have their own health issues, family demands, or simply not feel capable of handling financial or medical decisions for someone else. Better to learn this now than to have your carefully drafted documents become useless when you need them.
Second, the conversation lets you explain your values and preferences. Tell your potential agent how you feel about nursing homes versus home care, about aggressive medical treatment versus comfort-focused care, about preserving your estate versus spending down your assets on your own care. Give them the context they’ll need to make decisions that reflect who you are.
Third, this conversation surfaces potential conflicts. Maybe your adult child has financial problems of their own and access to your accounts would create temptation. Maybe your sibling has strong religious beliefs that conflict with your healthcare preferences. Maybe there’s a family member who would be deeply hurt by not being chosen and that fallout would affect your agent’s ability to function. Better to identify these issues in advance.
Practical Execution Requirements in Georgia
Georgia has specific requirements for creating a valid Power of Attorney. Understanding these helps ensure your document actually works when you need it.
For a financial POA, you must sign the document (or have someone sign at your express direction in your presence). The signing must be attested by a witness who is not named as an agent in the document. It must also be attested as set forth in Georgia Code Section 44-2-15—which essentially means having it notarized—by someone who is not the same person serving as witness and who is not named as an agent.
The witness and the notary must be two separate people. Neither can be named as an agent in your POA. These requirements exist to prevent coercion and ensure you’re acting voluntarily.
For the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care, the requirements differ slightly. You must sign and date the form in the presence of two witnesses. The witnesses must be of sound mind and at least 18 years old, but they don’t have to be present together or with you at the exact moment you sign. You do need to see both witnesses sign. There are restrictions on who can witness: only one witness can be an employee of a healthcare facility where you’re receiving care, and that witness can’t be directly involved in your care.
If you’re granting your agent authority over real estate in Georgia, you should record the POA with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where you own property. This isn’t required for the POA to be valid, but it prevents complications when your agent needs to conduct real estate transactions.
Naming Backup Agents
Georgia specifically allows you to name successor agents—people who will take over if your primary agent dies, becomes incapacitated, resigns, or is otherwise unable to act. This is straightforward good planning.
Think about your successor agent choice with the same care you gave your primary selection. They may never need to serve, or they may end up being the person who actually handles your affairs. Life is unpredictable. Your first choice might have a stroke, move to another country, or simply decide they can’t handle the responsibility when the time comes.
You can also name co-agents who serve simultaneously. Georgia law provides that co-agents won’t be required to act together unless you specify that requirement. This gives flexibility—either agent can act independently—but it also creates the potential for conflicting decisions or confusion about who’s handling what. Most estate planning attorneys recommend against co-agents unless there’s a specific reason for it.
Reviewing and Updating Your Choices
Your POA isn’t a one-time decision. Circumstances change. The person you name today may not be the right choice in ten years. Maybe your relationship deteriorates. Maybe they develop health problems of their own. Maybe your family situation shifts—new marriages, divorces, deaths, births.
Review your POA documents periodically, particularly after major life events. If you need to change your agent, you can revoke your existing POA and execute a new one. Georgia law allows you to revoke a POA at any time by any method that clearly communicates your intent—but to avoid confusion, you should do this in writing and notify your agent, any institutions that have copies, and relevant family members.
Make sure your chosen agent has a copy of the POA and knows where to find the original. A POA that no one can locate when it’s needed might as well not exist. Store the original somewhere accessible—not in a safe deposit box that requires your presence to open, which defeats the purpose.
Final Thoughts
Choosing a Power of Attorney isn’t about finding a perfect person—that person doesn’t exist. It’s about making a thoughtful decision with clear eyes about who is most likely to act in your interest, has the capability to do the job, and will be available when needed.
Georgia law gives you significant flexibility in structuring your POA and choosing your agents. Use that flexibility wisely. Have honest conversations with potential agents. Think through realistic scenarios, not just best-case situations. Name successor agents. Review your choices periodically.
The goal is simple even if the execution is complex: ensure that if you ever can’t handle your own affairs, someone you’ve chosen and trusted will step in and do right by you. Take the time to get this right.
