The statutory provisions governing powers of attorney in Pennsylvania, which can be found under Chapter 56 of the Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code (20 Pa. C.S. Sections 5601-5612), have recently changed. This came about by the passage of HB 1429, which was signed by then-Gov. Tom Corbett on July 2, 2014, as Act 95 of 2014. While some of the provisions became effective immediately upon the passage of Act 95, many of the changes did not take effect until Jan. 1. Now that all of the changes implemented by Act 95 have taken effect, we thought it would be helpful to highlight some of the key provisions:
• Execution of power of attorney. Under prior law, a power of attorney was generally not required to be witnessed or notarized to be legally effective, even though the widespread practice was to do so. Under the new law, all powers of attorney must now be acknowledged before a notary public (or another individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments) and witnessed by two individuals. One of the most significant changes is that the agent cannot be one of the witnesses.
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