Pennsylvania POA Form Requirements: Signing, Notary & Filing

Most Pennsylvania powers of attorney that get rejected are not rejected because of what they say. They are rejected because of how they were signed. Act 95 of 2014 rebuilt the execution rules for financial powers of attorney, and a document that misses one of those steps can be technically void — usually discovered on the worst possible day, at a bank counter, with a parent already in the hospital.

This page walks through the form requirements exactly as a Pennsylvania bank, title company, or brokerage will check them, then explains the recording and Register of Wills questions families ask most. A sample Pennsylvania power of attorney form is available at the bottom so you can see how the required pages fit together.

What Act 95 changed

Act 95 of 2014 amended Chapter 56 of Title 20 (20 Pa.C.S. § 5601 and following) in response to *Vine v. Commonwealth*, where a third party relied on a power of attorney that turned out to be invalid. The Act did two things at once: it tightened how a POA must be executed, and it gave banks and other third parties real protection when they accept one that looks proper on its face.

The practical consequence is that Pennsylvania institutions now check the execution pages closely. A power of attorney signed after January 1, 2015 that is missing the Notice page, the agent's Acknowledgment, the notary, or two witnesses is not a "weak" document. It is a document a bank is entitled to refuse.

The five parts of a valid Pennsylvania POA

A durable financial power of attorney executed today needs all five of the following, in this order:

• The statutory Notice page. The exact language in 20 Pa.C.S. § 5601(c), in capital letters, at the very front of the document. The principal signs or initials it. It comes first — before the grant of authority — and it must not be buried mid-document.
• The grant of authority. The body of the document: who the agent is, what powers they hold, when the authority begins, and who serves if the first agent cannot. Any "hot power" under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5601.4 — making gifts, creating or changing beneficiary designations, creating or amending a trust, disclaiming property, changing rights of survivorship — must be spelled out expressly.
• The principal's signature, dated. Signed by the principal, or by another person at the principal's direction and in the principal's presence.
• Two witnesses. Each at least 18. Neither witness may be the agent, and neither may be the person who signed on the principal's behalf. The notary cannot double as one of the two witnesses.
• A notary acknowledgment. The principal's signature must be acknowledged before a notary public or other person authorized to take acknowledgments.

Miss any one of these and the document is defective on its face. There is no cure short of re-executing while the principal still has capacity.

Notary rules, in practice

The notary is acknowledging the principal's signature — not the witnesses', and not the agent's. Three points cause most of the trouble:

The notary cannot be a witness. Section 5601(b)(3) treats them as separate roles. A document signed with one witness and a notary who also signed as the second witness fails.

The notary cannot be the agent. A spouse who is being named as agent cannot notarize, and in most cases should not witness either.

Remote online notarization is permitted. Act 97 of 2020 made Pennsylvania's RON authority permanent under Title 57. A commissioned Pennsylvania notary who is approved for remote notarization can complete the acknowledgment by audio-video link, and the notary keeps a recording. The two witnesses still have to be present in the same electronic session and must be able to see and hear the principal sign.

The safest execution remains an in-person signing where the principal, both witnesses, and the notary are in one room and sign in one continuous session.

The agent's Acknowledgment — the page everyone forgets

An agent in Pennsylvania has no authority until the agent signs the Acknowledgment required by 20 Pa.C.S. § 5601(d). It is a short page in which the agent states that they will act in the principal's best interest, keep the principal's property separate, and keep a record of receipts and disbursements.

Two things follow from this that surprise families:

• The agent does not have to sign at the same time as the principal. An agent can sign the Acknowledgment years later, when the authority is first needed.
• A successor agent must sign their own Acknowledgment before acting. If your document names a child as backup agent, that child's page has to be executed before a bank will honor them.

Keep the signed Acknowledgment stapled to the original. A bank asked to accept the POA will want to see the agent's page and the principal's page together.

Healthcare documents follow different rules

The Act 95 requirements above apply to financial powers of attorney. A healthcare power of attorney under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5452 is executed differently: the principal signs and dates, and two witnesses who are at least 18 sign — a notary is not required, and the agent does not sign an Acknowledgment.

Because the rules differ, these should be two separate documents, not one combined form. See our advance directive guide for how the healthcare side fits together.

Recording the POA with the Recorder of Deeds

A Pennsylvania power of attorney does not have to be recorded to be valid. Recording becomes necessary only when the agent uses the document to do something with real estate — sign a deed, take out a mortgage, or complete a sale.

Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5602(c) and the county recording statutes, the power of attorney is recorded in the Recorder of Deeds office in the county where the property sits, before or together with the instrument the agent signs. Fees run roughly $30 to $100 depending on the county and page count. Once recorded, the document is a public record — one reason we do not recommend recording a POA that has no real estate purpose.

A revocation is recorded the same way. If you revoke a POA that was recorded, record the revocation in the same county, or a title examiner will keep finding the original.

When something must be filed with the Register of Wills

Families frequently mix up the Recorder of Deeds and the Register of Wills. They are different offices with different jobs, and a power of attorney almost never touches the second one.

• A power of attorney is never filed with the Register of Wills. Its authority ends at death, so the office has no role for it.
• The original will must be filed with the Register of Wills in the county where the decedent was domiciled, when the estate is opened. Whoever holds the original has a duty to produce it; you cannot keep a decedent's will in a drawer while assets sit in probate.
• The Register of Wills does not hold wills during life in most Pennsylvania counties. There is no state-level will registry. The original should live in a fireproof box or with your attorney, and your executor should know exactly where.
• An inheritance tax return (REV-1500) is filed with the Register of Wills, acting as agent for the Department of Revenue — due nine months after death, with a 5% discount for tax paid within three months.

If your agent's authority is being challenged during your lifetime, that dispute goes to the Orphans' Court division of the Court of Common Pleas — not to the Register of Wills. See what happens when a PA bank refuses a power of attorney for the steps before litigation.

Where DIY forms go wrong

The three failure patterns we see most:

1. A downloaded form with no Notice page, or with a generic multi-state notice that does not match § 5601(c) word for word.
2. Silent hot powers. A form that grants "all powers I could exercise myself" does not authorize gifting or beneficiary changes. Medicaid planning and beneficiary corrections both die on this.
3. One witness, or the notary as the second witness. The most common defect, and the one most likely to be caught at a bank rather than at signing.

Sample form

The sample Pennsylvania power of attorney form shows the required Notice page, a grant of authority with hot powers broken out, the signature and witness block, the notary acknowledgment, and the agent's Acknowledgment page — assembled in the correct order with annotations explaining each requirement.

It is a teaching document, not a form to sign as-is. Powers of attorney are drafted around your assets, your family, and whether Medicaid is on the horizon. Use it to understand what a complete Pennsylvania POA looks like, then have yours drafted and executed properly.