Your bank manager has a recurring nightmare: A well-dressed gentleman presents what apears to be a properly executed PoA giving him the authority to manage his elderly mother's accounts. He withdraws a substantial amount and cashes in several maturing CDs. The next day the woman's daughter walks in with what appears to be a valid power of attorney, dated two weeks ago, that revokes the son's authority. There is almost nothing left in the senior's account, and the bank may have made an honest but horrible mistake.

Banks have some valid concerns when it comes to Durable Powers of Attorney:

• Is the person presenting the PoA who he says he is?

• Is the PoA still valid, or has the person presenting it been replaced
  since it was drawn up?
  

Families can be strange and unpredictable things. Your banker has no way of knowing whether your brother has gone off the deep end, whether your mother divorced your father, or whether you have simply decided that someone else would be better able to manage your money.  If your parent revoked an older power of attorney and never notified the bank, they may unwittingly honor an invalid document.

For these reasons, bankers prefer it when their client brings the person they wish to appoint to the bank to complete the bank's PoA forms. That way, the bank knows that their client is voluntarily making the appointment without undue pressure, they have a copy of the PoA document on file before it is needed, and they have met the appointed person and have obtained specimen signatures for their files.

If your parent isn't able to go into the bank to sign the bank's PoA form, take copies of the bank's forms to your parents and have them completed and notarized. Ask the bank for the document they use to verify signatures, and have a specimen signature of the person being appointed verified by the notary. When you return these documents to the bank make it a point to introduce yourself or the appointed person to the bank manager.

Later, if your parent wants to make changes, do the same things again. That way the bank will know that their previous documents are void, and they will have up-to-date information.

While the durable PoA form your parents signed may state that no financial institution may refuse to honor a properly executed statutory power of attorney, in practice banks can make it extremely difficult to use one when you need to use it. Sometimes it is far faster and easier in the long run to jump through their "hoops," which are really there for a purpose.