Aging Parent HQ

Texas Power of Attorney Requirements

The short answer. Texas does not have one signing rule for "a power of attorney." It has two separate documents with two different rule sets, and confusing them is the most common reason a family's paperwork fails at the moment it is finally needed. Financial authority is created by a document your parent signs and has acknowledged before a notary; medical authority is created by a separate document your parent signs in front of two qualifying witnesses or, alternatively, before a notary — after signing an acknowledgment that they read the statutory disclosure statement, without which that document is not effective. Neither document reaches the other's decisions.

A durable financial power of attorney is a written record that names an agent, is signed by your parent as an adult principal — or by another adult at your parent's direction and in your parent's conscious presence — contains wording showing the authority survives later disability or incapacity, and is acknowledged before a notary or another officer authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds (Texas Estates Code §751.0021).

A medical power of attorney is signed by your parent in front of two qualifying adult witnesses, at least one of whom must be disinterested under Texas law — or, instead of witnesses, signed and acknowledged before a notary (Texas Health and Safety Code §166.154). The disclosure-statement acknowledgment is the step families miss most, because it sits above the signature block rather than in it — and §166.162 makes the document ineffective without it.

The two documents also switch on at different moments. The Texas statutory financial form is effective immediately unless your parent deliberately chooses the delayed alternative. A medical agent may act only after your parent's attending physician certifies in writing, and files that certification in the medical record, that your parent is incompetent.

Neither document requires a lawyer. Texas HHS publishes both official forms free, and a notary's acknowledgment fee is capped by state law. An attorney is worth the cost when the powers reach into an estate plan, when capacity or pressure is in question, or when older documents already exist — the specific triggers are listed further down this page, along with the free and low-cost routes to legal help in Texas.

One gate comes before any of it: if anyone is unsure whether your parent understands what they would be signing, or if your parent is being pushed toward a particular agent, stop and get Texas legal advice before the appointment. Capacity and pressure are legal questions, not form questions, and no notary and no checklist decides them.

Your parent is the person who grants this authority. No adult child can take a power of attorney; a parent gives one, voluntarily, and keeps making their own decisions for as long as they are able. The smallest useful first step is a conversation, not a download: ask your parent which decisions they would want help with, and who they would want making them.

This page is general legal information from Aging Parent HQ, an independent publisher. Aging Parent HQ is not a law firm, a government agency or a document service, and does not give legal advice. It is written and fact-checked by the Aging Parent HQ editorial team, working from the governing Texas statute and the agencies responsible for each official form rather than from secondary summaries. It has not yet been reviewed by a Texas-licensed attorney; when that review is completed, it will be credited here by name, role, and date. Every statement of Texas law below links to the section it comes from, so you can confirm any line here yourself. If you find something here that no longer matches its source, email hello@agingparenthq.com and we will recheck it against the statute or agency page and publish the corrected check date.

Texas statutes, official forms, program routes and county recording fees were verified against their governing sources; the full check list and its dates are in How this page was verified. Next scheduled review: after the 2027 Texas legislative session, or sooner if a cited section is amended. Recheck before your parent signs, and before you rely on a signed document.

Older Texan signing power of attorney documents at his kitchen table with his son

Contents

If your parent may not understand what the document does, if anyone is pressuring them toward a particular agent or a particular signature, or if family members disagree about what should be signed, stop and get Texas legal advice before the appointment. Whether a person had capacity to sign is a legal question decided on facts and evidence. A notary confirms identity and takes an acknowledgment; a notary does not assess capacity or approve the arrangement. A diagnosis by itself neither prevents signing nor activates a document. Nothing on this page is a capacity test.

If your parent is in immediate danger, call 911. If you suspect an older adult is being neglected or financially exploited, the Texas Abuse Hotline run by the Department of Family and Protective Services takes reports 24 hours a day at 1-800-252-5400. If the harder problem is that your parent does not want to discuss any of this yet, it usually helps to start the conversation with your parent before returning to documents.

Which path fits your family right now

  • Start with the conversation, not the form, if nobody has yet asked your parent what they would want and who they would want doing it. Have that conversation this week; everything below follows from it.
  • Start with a medical power of attorney if the pressing question is who speaks with doctors when your parent cannot. It will not help with a bank, and it does not take effect the day it is signed. Pull the official form and ask the primary care practice how it gets into the chart.
  • Start with a durable financial power of attorney if the pressing difficulty is bills, banking, insurance, benefits paperwork, or property. Call the institution that will receive it before anything is signed.
  • Look at your parent's benefit income separately if the real problem is the monthly Social Security or VA deposit. Neither power of attorney reaches those payments, and each agency runs its own process — the benefit-income section below explains what does work and what your parent can file now.
  • Ask about a supported decision-making agreement if your parent wants help understanding options and gathering records rather than someone acting in their place. Texas has a statutory instrument built for exactly that; read the section further down this page with your parent rather than about them.
  • Choose neither yet if your parent is not ready to decide — their own timeline is a legitimate part of this, not an obstacle to work around. Nothing is lost by waiting while your parent can still sign; what closes the door is waiting past the point where they can. Ask again after the next appointment or the next visit.
  • Get Texas legal advice first if capacity or pressure is in question, if your parent may already be past the point of understanding the document, if the document would allow gifts, trust changes, survivorship or beneficiary changes, if significant real estate or a business is involved, or if older documents already exist. Make that call before an appointment is booked, and bring an inventory of every document your parent has already signed.
  • Start with the free routes if cost is the obstacle. Texans aged 60 and older can get free phone advice on powers of attorney, and legal aid in Texas is organized by the county where your parent lives. Both numbers are at the end of this page; call before you pay anyone.
  • Turn to the house itself once the financial document is signed and the bills are covered — that is usually the next thing families want to fix, and our aging-in-place planning checklist covers it room by room.

Texas power of attorney requirements at a glance: the Two-Track Check

The Two-Track Check is the eleven-requirement comparison below. It sets the two Texas documents side by side — the durable financial power of attorney and the medical power of attorney — so a family can see, in one place, which rules belong to which track. Rules are verified against Texas statutes; individual institutions and counties may add operational steps that Texas law itself does not require.

RequirementDurable financial power of attorneyMedical power of attorney
What it coversProperty, money and business authority under the financial power of attorney, limited to what the document grants.Health care decisions under the medical power of attorney, once the statutory activation step has happened.
What it does not doA Texas durable financial power of attorney does not authorize health care decisions — the statutory form says so on its face. It does not survive your parent's death. It is not accepted by the Social Security Administration for managing benefit payments.A Texas medical power of attorney does not authorize financial or property acts. It does not override your parent's own objection to treatment. It is not a directive to physicians and does not record treatment wishes by itself.
Governing lawTexas Estates Code Chapter 751 and Chapter 752.Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 166.
Who signsFor the financial document: the adult principal, or another adult who signs the principal's name at the principal's direction and in the principal's conscious presence.For the medical document: the principal. If the principal is physically unable to sign, another person may sign the principal's name in the principal's presence and at the principal's express direction.
Witnesses or notaryThe financial document must be acknowledged before a notary or another officer authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds and administer oaths. Witnesses are not the execution step. An online notarization by a commissioned Texas online notary is also an acknowledgment.The medical document is signed in front of two competent adult witnesses, at least one of whom meets the disinterested-witness test, and both witnesses sign — or signed and acknowledged before a notary instead. One route or the other, never both. Separately, the principal must sign the acknowledgment of the disclosure statement before executing, or the document is not effective (§166.162).
When the agent can actThe financial power of attorney takes effect immediately on the statutory form unless the principal chooses the delayed alternative. If the delayed alternative is chosen and the document does not define incapacity, a physician must certify in writing, after the signing date, that the principal is mentally incapable of managing financial affairs.A medical agent may act only after the attending physician certifies in writing, and files the certification in the medical record, that the principal is incompetent, based on the physician's reasonable medical judgment.
Limits on the agentFor the financial document: authority to create or change a trust, make gifts, create or change survivorship rights, create or change beneficiary designations, or delegate authority exists only if the document expressly grants it. Extra limits apply when the agent is not the principal's ancestor, spouse or descendant.For the medical document: the principal's health care provider, residential care provider, and employees of either may not serve, unless the employee is a relative. The agent may not consent to voluntary inpatient mental health services, convulsive treatment, psychosurgery, abortion, or withholding comfort care.
What it costsThe Texas HHS statutory durable power of attorney form is free to download. A notary's fee for taking the acknowledgment is capped by Texas Government Code §406.024 at $10 for the first signature and $1 for each additional signature, subject to a five-year inflation adjustment by the Secretary of State; a mobile notary's travel charge is separate from that capped fee, and a Texas online notary may charge up to $25 more for an online notarization. An attorney-drafted document is quoted per matter; ask whether the quote is flat or hourly. A county recording fee applies only to the real-property transactions the statute lists and is set locally — the ten most populous counties are in the county table below.The Texas HHS medical power of attorney form is free to download. The two-witness route costs nothing. The notary route is capped by the same §406.024 acknowledgment fee, plus up to $25 more if it is done online. There is no filing fee, because there is no filing step.
Filing or recordingFor the financial document: no general statewide filing step. Recording with the county clerk where the property sits is required for the real-property transactions the statute lists, no later than the 30th day after the instrument is filed for recording.For the medical document: no general recording step in Chapter 166. The document belongs in the medical record with the treating provider.
How it ends or changesThe financial power of attorney ends on death of the principal, revocation, a stated end date or completed purpose, certain agent events with no successor, or qualification of a permanent guardian of the estate. Divorce ends a spouse-agent's authority unless the document says otherwise.The medical power of attorney ends on oral or written notice from the principal to the agent or a provider, any act showing a specific intent to revoke, or signing a later medical power of attorney. Divorce revokes a spouse-agent's authority unless the document says otherwise.
Verification statusEstates Code Chapters 751 and 752 verified July 29, 2026; the execution, activation and statutory-form notice sections rechecked August 2, 2026; the notary-fee and online-notarization figures rechecked August 10, 2026. The official Texas HHS statutory durable power of attorney form page listed the form as updated 9/2017 when checked July 29, 2026.Health and Safety Code Chapter 166 verified July 29, 2026; the execution, activation and medical-information sections rechecked August 2, 2026; the disclosure-statement requirement verified August 10, 2026. The official Texas HHS medical power of attorney form page listed the form as effective 5/2024 when checked July 29, 2026.

Start here this week. Pick the one decision domain that is actually pressing — money or health — rather than trying to solve both in a single sitting. Ask your parent who they would want in that role and who the backup should be. Pull the current official form for that track: the Texas HHS statutory durable power of attorney form for finances, or the Texas HHS medical power of attorney form for health care. Then make one phone call to the bank, clinic or title company most likely to receive the document and ask what their process is. That call, made before anything is signed, prevents most of the delays families hit later.

Terms Texas uses in these documents

  • Principal — the person who grants the authority. Here, your parent.
  • Agent — the person given authority to act. Older documents may say "attorney in fact."
  • Durable — the authority survives your parent's later disability or incapacity. It does not mean delayed.
  • Springing power of attorney — the informal name for the delayed alternative on the statutory financial form, under which authority begins only on disability or incapacity rather than at signing.
  • Acknowledgment — a notarial act in which your parent confirms to the officer that they signed. It is not a capacity finding.
  • Disinterested witness — a witness who is not the agent, a relative, an estate beneficiary or claimant, the attending physician or that physician's employee, or certain employees of the facility where your parent is a patient.
  • Attending physician — the physician with primary responsibility for your parent's treatment. This is the physician whose written certification activates a medical power of attorney.
  • Incompetent — the statutory threshold for that certification, reached on the physician's reasonable medical judgment.
  • Disclosure statement — the statutory explanation of what a medical power of attorney does. Your parent signs an acknowledgment that they received and understood it, and that signature is part of what makes the document effective.
  • Agent's certification — the agent's own written statement, under penalty of perjury, confirming facts a recipient of the financial document may ask about before accepting it.
  • Opinion of counsel — a lawyer's written opinion that a recipient of the financial document may request on a specific legal question about it.

Which Texas document does your parent need?

Route by the decision, not by the diagnosis. If the problem your family is solving is a stack of unopened bills, a bank that will not talk to anyone, an insurance claim, a property tax exemption or a house sale, that is financial authority. If the problem is who a hospitalist calls at 2 a.m. when your parent cannot answer, that is health care authority. Most families who plan ahead end up with both, because one document cannot do the other's job — the Texas statutory financial form says on its face that it does not authorize anyone to make medical or health-care decisions.

Your parent can name the same person for both roles or different people. Neither choice is automatically better. Naming one person keeps the story simple in a crisis; naming two can match the roles to who is actually good at each, and can spread the load across siblings. What matters more is whether the person named will be reachable, will follow your parent's stated wishes rather than their own preferences, and is willing to say so out loud in front of the family now. Name a successor in both documents, because the most common failure is not a bad agent but an unavailable one.

When siblings disagree, remember whose decision it is: your parent chooses the agent, and a competent parent's choice governs even when the rest of the family would have chosen differently. The instinct to name two children as co-agents so nobody feels passed over usually backfires — conflicting instructions from co-agents are one of the grounds a bank may rely on to refuse a document, so an even split can produce exactly the paralysis it was meant to prevent. A named successor plus a short written note from your parent explaining why they chose whom prevents more disputes than a split does. If the disagreement is really about the care itself rather than about who signs, that is a different problem and the paperwork will not settle it; start there instead. If the argument is about who would be in charge should a court ever have to appoint someone, Texas lets your parent settle that in advance too — see the declaration of guardian in the table below. And where the argument is about whether your parent understands the document or is being pressured, that is a question for a Texas attorney rather than a family vote.

For general definitions, the difference between a power of attorney and guardianship, and planning that is not Texas-specific, our power of attorney guide for aging parents covers the broader picture. This page owns the Texas execution, activation, acceptance, recording and revocation rules.

What about the other Texas documents families hear about?

DocumentWhat it decidesHow your parent signs itWhen it takes effectWhat it costsWhy it is not a substitute
Directive to physicians (living will)Your parent's own written instructions about treatment in a terminal or irreversible conditionBefore two qualifying witnesses, at least one disinterested — or, in lieu of witnesses, acknowledged before a notary (§166.032)Not covered on this page — the directive's operation is governed by Chapter 166, subchapter BTexas HHS form free; witnesses cost nothing; the notary route is capped by §406.024It records wishes; it does not name anyone to speak for your parent, so families usually need it alongside a medical power of attorney
Out-of-hospital do-not-resuscitate orderWhether resuscitation and certain other life-sustaining treatment are withheld outside a hospitalYour parent signs before two qualifying witnesses or a notary, and the attending physician must also sign it and record it in the chart (§166.082)Once your parent signs and the attending physician signs and records it; the order's operation is not covered on this pageTexas HHS form free; any DNR identification device is separate and not covered hereIt is a signed medical order for one narrow situation, not a grant of decision-making authority
Declaration of guardian in advance of needWho a court should appoint as guardian if a guardianship is ever needed — and, if your parent chooses, who may never be appointedWritten wholly in your parent's handwriting, or attested by two credible witnesses aged 14 or older who are not named in it. A notary may replace the witnesses only if the declaration disqualifies no one (§1104.203)Only if a guardianship proceeding begins; a court may then not appoint anyone your parent disqualifiedNo free state form identified on the Texas HHS advance directives pages; witnesses cost nothing, and the notary route is capped by §406.024 where it is availableIt does nothing unless a guardianship proceeding begins. The powers of attorney are what keep one from being needed; this decides who is in charge if they are not enough
Supported decision-making agreementWhat help your parent wants with understanding options and gathering records, while they keep the right to decideYour parent and the supporter both sign, voluntarily, before two or more subscribing witnesses aged 14 or older or a notary (§1357.055)As soon as it is signed. Nothing waits on a physician's certification or a finding of incapacityFree form from TexasLawHelp; witnesses cost nothing; the notary route is capped by §406.024It transfers no authority at all, so it cannot be used where someone must sign in your parent's place — see the section below
Social Security representative payee, and advance designationWho manages your parent's Social Security or SSI payments if SSA decides a payee is needed — and, through advance designation, whom your parent would chooseAdvance designation is filed by your parent through a personal my Social Security account or by phone. Appointment as payee is a separate SSA application on Form SSA-11, with proof of identity and usually a face-to-face interviewAdvance designation is not an appointment; SSA still evaluates suitability if and when it decides a payee is neededNo fee to file. A payee generally may not charge a fee for the roleIt reaches only the benefit payments, not bank accounts, property or health care — and SSA does not accept a power of attorney for this purpose
VA fiduciaryWho manages VA benefit payments for a beneficiary VA determines cannot manage themNot applicable — your parent does not execute this document; VA appoints the fiduciaryOn VA's determination and appointmentNot verified on this page — ask VALike SSA, VA runs its own process and does not act on a power of attorney for this purpose

Texas HHS publishes the official forms for the directive to physicians and the out-of-hospital do-not-resuscitate order, and for both powers of attorney, on its advance directives form pages. Confirm any form by its official title and revision date before anyone signs; a copy saved a few years ago may no longer match the current version.

The declaration of guardian is worth a moment because it is stronger than most families expect. Under §1104.202 a person who is not incapacitated may designate who should serve as guardian of their person or estate, and may expressly disqualify named individuals — and a court may not appoint anyone your parent disqualified (§1104.355). Note the trade in the signing rule above: if disqualifying someone is the point, the notary shortcut is off the table and your parent needs witnesses.

Paying for a form, and the packages to watch for

The Texas forms are published free by a state agency. A service charging you for the form itself is charging for something the state gives away, and paying for it buys no additional legal weight — a statutory form is legally sufficient because of how it is completed and acknowledged, not because of where it was bought. That is different from paying an attorney to draft or review a document, which buys judgment about your parent's actual situation.

Here is the realistic spread for a family doing both documents in Texas.

PathWhat it includesCost basis
LowestBoth official Texas HHS forms, downloaded free. Medical power of attorney signed before two qualifying witnesses; financial power of attorney acknowledged by a notary who charges nothing$0. The §406.024 fees are maximums, not required charges — ask your parent's bank or credit union whether it notarizes for account holders
TypicalBoth official forms, one appointment with a notary charging the statutory maximum, or a mobile or online notary if your parent cannot travel$10 for the first signature and $1 for each additional signature under §406.024; a mobile notary's travel charge is unregulated and agreed in advance; an online notarization may add up to $25 per act
HighestAttorney-drafted or attorney-reviewed documents, usually because gifts, trusts, beneficiary changes, real estate, a business or competing older documents are involvedQuoted per matter and not capped by statute. We do not publish a range, because no Texas attorney fee survey we found clears our figure standard — a source, a year, a unit and a date checked. Ask whether the quote is flat or hourly, exactly what it covers, and who does the work — and get that in writing before you pay a retainer

One line drives the entire gap: whether an attorney is involved. Everything else on this page is either free or capped by statute, which is why the question worth answering carefully is not "how do we save money" but "does our situation actually need judgment."

Be more careful with a package. If a power of attorney arrives bundled with an annuity, a living trust sold at a seminar, or a "free" estate-planning workshop that ends in a sales appointment, the document is the doorway and the product is the sale. Take any such document to an independent Texas attorney — one not connected to the seller — before your parent signs anything else in the package.

What this page does not cover

This page is about executing, activating, honoring, recording and revoking Texas powers of attorney. It does not cover guardianship procedure, Medicaid eligibility or planning, wills and probate, the mechanics of an out-of-hospital do-not-resuscitate order, business powers of attorney, or documents involving minors. It publishes the real-property recording fee for the ten most populous Texas counties and does not publish fees for the other 244, because those are set locally and change without notice; the route to a current figure is below. Where a question belongs to one of those topics, the answer is a Texas attorney or the owning agency, not this page.

What Texas requires for a durable financial power of attorney

What makes it valid in Texas

Four elements have to line up under §751.0021. The instrument must be a writing or record that names an agent and grants that agent authority to act in your parent's place. It must be signed by your parent as an adult principal, or by another adult who signs your parent's name at your parent's direction and in your parent's conscious presence. It must contain durability wording — language showing the authority continues despite later disability or incapacity, or that it begins on disability or incapacity. And it must be acknowledged before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds of conveyance and administer oaths, which in practice means a notary.

Texas publishes a statutory form at §752.051, and Texas HHS posts a free copy of it. A statutory durable power of attorney is legally sufficient when its wording substantially complies with the statutory form, the form is properly completed, and the principal's signature is acknowledged. "Properly completed" is where most home-prepared documents fail: powers are granted by initialing lines (A) through (N), or line (O) to grant all of them, and a power your parent does not initial is not granted.

The acknowledgment does not have to happen at a kitchen table. Texas has permitted online notarization since 2018, and the Secretary of State's guidance for online notaries public states that a commissioned Texas online notary may charge up to $25 for the online act on top of the regular §406.024 fees. For a homebound parent, or an adult child arranging this from another state, that is often the practical route. The notary must be commissioned specifically as an online notary, though, and some banks and title companies still prefer a wet-ink original — ask the institution that will receive the document before you book anything.

Where other sources get Texas rules wrong

Two errors circulate widely enough to be worth naming, because a family acting on either one ends up with a document that does not work.

The first is the claim that a Texas financial power of attorney needs no notarization. It does. Acknowledgment before an authorized officer is one of the four elements in §751.0021, and an unacknowledged document is not a valid durable power of attorney no matter how carefully the rest of it was filled in. Texas is unusual in requiring an acknowledgment rather than witnesses for this document, which is probably why summaries written for a national audience get it wrong.

The second runs the other way: summaries of the medical power of attorney that describe only the two-witness route and never mention that §166.154 allows a notary acknowledgment instead. Families who read only that version conclude they must assemble two qualifying witnesses, which — as the next section explains — is often the hardest part of the whole exercise. The state's own form settles it: the instruction printed in capitals above the signature block on the §166.164 statutory form tells your parent to sign either with the signature acknowledged before a notary public or in the presence of two competent adult witnesses. A summary offering only one of those routes is not describing the Texas form.

Both errors were still in circulation on general-audience legal-information pages when we checked on August 10, 2026, which is why the test is worth keeping. You can run it on any summary in about a minute: if it does not say the financial document must be acknowledged before a notary, or it does not offer a notary as an alternative to witnesses for the medical one, it is wrong for Texas or out of date. Check it against the two sections linked above rather than against another summary.

When the authority starts

The Texas statutory form states plainly that the power of attorney is effective immediately unless your parent directs otherwise, and it offers two alternatives — one that keeps the document unaffected by later disability, and one that makes it begin only on disability or incapacity, sometimes called a springing power of attorney. If neither alternative is crossed out, the form treats your parent as having chosen the immediate one. This surprises families who assume "durable" means "only after something goes wrong." Durable describes survival through incapacity, not delay.

If your parent does choose the delayed alternative and the document does not define incapacity, §751.00201 supplies the default: a physician must certify in writing, at a date later than the signing date, that after examining your parent the physician finds them mentally incapable of managing their financial affairs. That is a real appointment and a real document your agent has to obtain, and a bank presented with a delayed-effect document may ask for a written statement from the attending physician that your parent is presently incapacitated. Immediate authority avoids that step; delayed authority is a deliberate trade of convenience for control. Your parent decides which trade they prefer, and they keep full authority over their own affairs either way.

Powers that must be granted on purpose

Some authority never comes along for the ride. Under §751.031, an agent may create, amend, revoke or terminate a living trust, make a gift, create or change rights of survivorship, create or change a beneficiary designation, or delegate authority only if the document expressly grants that power. There is a further guardrail: unless the document says otherwise, an agent who is not your parent's ancestor, spouse or descendant may not use the document to create an interest in your parent's property for themselves or for someone they owe support. These powers reach directly into an estate plan, and they are the single strongest reason to involve a Texas estate-planning or elder-law attorney rather than working from a downloaded form.

One Texas quirk is worth knowing before you book the notary. The statutory form's notice states that if your parent wants their agent to be able to sign home equity loan documents, the power of attorney must be signed at the office of the lender, at an attorney's office, or at a title company. A kitchen-table signing cannot be fixed after the fact for that purpose.

Finally, the agent is a fiduciary. Under §751.101 and the sections that follow, an accepting agent has a duty to inform your parent of each action taken, to keep records of every action and decision, and to provide an accounting when your parent asks. If you are the agent, set up separate record-keeping on day one; if you are the sibling who is not the agent, that accounting right belongs to your parent, not to you.

When a power of attorney is not the right tool: benefit income

A financial power of attorney reaches your parent's bank accounts. It does not reach the federal benefit payments that land in them, and this is the gap that sends families back to square one after the paperwork is already signed.

The Social Security Administration does not accept a power of attorney for managing Social Security or SSI payments — the Treasury Department does not recognize a power of attorney for negotiating federal payments, so an agent who wants to manage those benefits must apply separately to be appointed a representative payee. That means an appointment with a Social Security office, Form SSA-11, proof of identity, and usually a face-to-face interview. SSA presumes an adult is capable of managing their own benefits and appoints a payee only on evidence to the contrary, and a payee generally may not charge a fee for the role. The VA appoints its own fiduciary on the same principle, for beneficiaries it determines cannot manage their payments.

There is a planning-ahead move here that mirrors the power of attorney, and most families have never heard of it. While your parent is still capable, they can file an advance designation naming up to three individuals, in order of preference, whom they would want as representative payee if SSA ever decides one is needed. It is not an appointment and it is not a finding about anyone's capability; SSA still evaluates suitability at the time, and your parent can update or withdraw it at any point. It can be filed through a personal my Social Security account or by phone at 1-800-772-1213. Like the power of attorney, it is your parent naming their own person rather than an agency choosing for them — which is the whole argument for doing it before it is needed.

What Texas requires for a medical power of attorney

The execution rule is genuinely different, and blending it with the financial rule is the mistake to avoid. Under §166.154, the medical power of attorney must be signed by your parent in the presence of two witnesses who qualify under §166.003, and the witnesses must sign it. Alternatively, your parent may sign the document and have the signature acknowledged before a notary public instead of signing in front of witnesses. If your parent is physically unable to sign, another person may sign your parent's name in your parent's presence and at your parent's express direction.

Those are alternatives, not a checklist. The official Texas form prints both a witness block and a notary block on the same page, and families routinely assume they need to fill in both. They do not — one route or the other is enough. What is not optional is the disclosure statement. Under §166.162 a medical power of attorney is not effective unless your parent, before executing it, signs a statement that they received the disclosure statement and have read and understood its contents; §166.163 sets out what that disclosure must say, and the statutory form at §166.164 carries the acknowledgment as its own signature block. This is the strongest reason to use the current official form rather than a document assembled from any summary, including this one.

"Two witnesses" alone is not the rule either. Both must be competent adults, and at least one must clear the disinterested test in §166.003(2): that witness may not be the person named as agent, a relative by blood or marriage, someone entitled to part of your parent's estate under a will or by operation of law, the attending physician or an employee of the attending physician, an employee of the facility where your parent is a patient who provides direct care or holds an officer, director, partner or business-office role there, or anyone with a claim against the estate. In practice this rules out most of the people standing in a hospital room. The notary route exists partly because assembling a qualifying witness pair is harder than it sounds. The statute describes a single signing in the presence of two witnesses; Aging Parent HQ's practical guidance is to have both witnesses in the room at the same time and to have them sign then, rather than collecting signatures separately and hoping a hospital accepts it later.

Texas also restricts who can serve. Under §166.153, a person may not exercise an agent's authority while serving as your parent's health care provider, an employee of that provider, your parent's residential care provider, or an employee of that residential care provider. The employee restrictions do not apply to a relative of your parent — so an adult child who happens to work at the assisted living community where their parent lives is not disqualified by that fact alone. If your parent lives in a nursing facility or assisted living community and the underlying worry is about their care rather than their paperwork, the Texas Long-Term Care Ombudsman advocates for residents free and confidentially at 800-252-2412, and works from the county where your parent lives.

When a medical agent may actually act

Signing does not hand anyone the keys. §166.152 allows an agent to exercise authority only after the attending physician certifies in writing, and files that certification in your parent's medical record, that your parent is incompetent based on the physician's reasonable medical judgment. That is the statute's term and its threshold, not a family's judgment call and not a conclusion any checklist can reach.

Alongside that threshold sit protections that should shape how your family talks about this document. Treatment may not be given to or withheld from your parent over your parent's objection — regardless of whether a medical power of attorney is in effect and regardless of whether your parent is competent at the moment of the objection. And the attending physician must make reasonable efforts to tell your parent about proposed treatment, or about a proposal to withdraw or withhold treatment, before carrying out an agent's decision. A medical power of attorney is a way for your parent's voice to keep working, not a way to speak over them.

When the agent does decide, the standard is your parent's known wishes, including their religious and moral beliefs; only if the agent does not know those wishes does the standard become the agent's assessment of your parent's best interests. That is an argument for a specific conversation, written notes, and a named backup — not for a longer form.

An agent may not consent to voluntary inpatient mental health services, convulsive treatment, psychosurgery, abortion, or neglect of your parent through omission of care primarily intended to keep them comfortable. Those decisions are off the table entirely.

The document itself lasts. Once executed and delivered to the agent it is effective indefinitely unless revoked, and if your parent regains the ability to make their own decisions, they make them. If the document names an expiration date and your parent is incompetent on that date, it continues until they can decide for themselves again. Use the current Texas HHS medical power of attorney form, which the agency lists as effective 5/2024, and complete every section rather than only the page naming the agent.

Can you get information before the medical power of attorney is active?

This is the gap that catches families hardest, usually on the phone with a clinic that will not tell them anything. Under §166.157 an agent may request, review and receive your parent's medical and hospital records, sign the releases needed to obtain them, and consent to their disclosure — but that authority exists for the purpose of making a health care decision, and under §166.152 the agent cannot make one until the attending physician's certification is in the record. Before that point, the medical power of attorney is not the tool that opens the chart.

What opens it is your parent. Federal privacy rules let a provider share relevant information with family members involved in a patient's care when the patient agrees, or does not object after being given the chance, or when the provider reasonably infers from the circumstances that the patient does not object — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explains this in its guidance on sharing health information with family members and friends. A competent parent can simply tell the practice, in the room or on a recorded call, that they want you included.

The practical step is to make that permission durable and on file. Most practices and hospital systems keep their own authorization or release-of-information form; ask for it and have your parent sign it at the same appointment where the powers of attorney are signed, and ask how long it stays in effect and whether the hospital system honors the clinic's version. Your parent may want to include you for some things and not others, and that is their call to make — a narrower authorization your parent is comfortable with works better than a broad one they resent.

A supported decision-making agreement: help without handing over authority

Texas has a third instrument that most families never hear about, and it is built for the situation the last two sections describe — a parent who wants help understanding options and collecting records, and who is not ready to hand anyone the authority to decide.

The Supported Decision-Making Agreement Act sits in Chapter 1357 of the Estates Code. Texas passed it in 2015 as, in the statute's own words, a less restrictive alternative to guardianship for adults with disabilities who need assistance with decisions about daily living but are not incapacitated (§1357.003). Under §1357.051 your parent may authorize a supporter to help them understand the options, responsibilities and consequences of a decision, to help them access and collect relevant records — medical, psychological, financial, educational or treatment — to help them understand that information, and to help them communicate their decision to the people who need it. The statute is explicit about the boundary: the supporter does not make the decision. The statutory form says it in the first person, on the page: my supporter is not allowed to make decisions for me.

It is worth raising with your parent because it runs on their own authority rather than transferring any, so nothing about it waits on a physician's certification or a finding of incapacity. And under §1357.101 a person who receives the agreement is to rely on it, which gives a clinic or a bank something to look at when your parent says "please talk to my daughter." §1357.054 governs the records role and requires protected health information obtained under the agreement to be kept confidential; the statutory form contemplates a signed HIPAA authorization attached to it — the same release the section above tells you to ask the practice for.

The limits matter as much as the powers. The agreement is only available to an "adult with a disability," which Chapter 1357 defines as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Not every aging parent meets that definition, and it is not a label to apply on your parent's behalf. It is valid only if it is in substantially the statutory form (§1357.056); the signing rule is in the table above. And it does not do a power of attorney's job: if someone will need to sign for your parent rather than beside them, this is not that document. Revisit it if that changes, if a clinic or bank declines to rely on it, or if your parent revokes it, which they may do at any time. TexasLawHelp, the nonprofit legal-information service, publishes a supported decision-making agreement form free.

How to sign, store and share the documents

This sequence is Aging Parent HQ's practical guidance, not a legal form or a capacity protocol. Your parent leads every step.

Notary seal being embossed on Texas power of attorney documents with witnesses present

  1. Name the decisions first. Write down the specific things that need covering — the mortgage servicer, the Medicare Advantage appeal, the cardiology clinic — before choosing a form. The list tells you which track you need and how much authority is actually required.
  2. Choose the track and the people. Financial, medical, or both. Name a successor agent in each document. Talk with the person before you write their name down.
  3. Use a current official or attorney-drafted document. Pull the form fresh, and remove obsolete drafts from the folder so nobody signs last year's version by accident.
  4. Arrange the correct ceremony. A notary acknowledgment for the financial document — in person, mobile, or online with a commissioned Texas online notary; two qualifying witnesses or a notary for the medical one, not both. If home equity borrowing is even a possibility, confirm the required signing location before booking.
  5. Complete the choices deliberately. Initial only the powers your parent intends to grant. Sign the medical form's acknowledgment of the disclosure statement before executing it. Make the effective-date choice explicitly. Fill in successors. Leave nothing ambiguous, and do not leave activation blank on the assumption someone will interpret it later.
  6. Store the original where it can be reached, and log every copy. Note the signing date and which version it is. Keep the original somewhere both your parent and the agent can reach on a weekend — not in a safe deposit box only your parent can open. Then record who received a copy, using the log below.
  7. Deliver copies where they will be needed. The agent gets one. The medical power of attorney goes to the primary care practice and to any hospital system your parent uses, so it lands in the chart before a crisis. Give the bank a copy and ask what else it wants. For a property transaction, ask the title professional or county clerk what must be recorded and when.

The log is the part families skip and later regret. If a document is replaced or revoked, this list is how you reach everyone who is still holding the old one — and, as the revocation section below explains, a revocation your parent's bank never hears about may not protect them. Copy these columns into a notes app or the front of the folder and fill a row in as each copy goes out. The first row shows the level of detail that makes it useful later.

Who received a copyWhich document and versionDate sentHow it was sentConfirmed received byNotified of any change
Example: Riverside CardiologyMedical POA, signed 3/14/263/18/26Patient portal upload + printed copy at front deskM. Alvarez, records desk, 3/19/26—
Agent
Successor agent
Primary care practice
Hospital system
Bank or credit union
Title company or county clerk
Anyone else who asked for one

When the agent can act, and what a bank, doctor or county clerk may need

Does a bank have to accept your parent's power of attorney?

In most cases it does, and a copy is generally enough. Under §751.0023, a photocopy or electronically transmitted copy of an original durable power of attorney has the same effect as the original and may be relied on to the same extent — except where another statute or the document itself says otherwise. Check the document for its own restriction before assuming a scan will be accepted.

Texas gives an agent a real acceptance process, with real limits. Under §751.201, a person presented with a durable power of attorney by an agent authorized to act must either accept it or, before accepting, request one of three things inside a deadline — and once what was requested arrives, a second deadline runs for accepting the document.

What the recipient may requestDeadline to request itDeadline to accept after it arrives
An agent's certification (§751.203)No later than the 10th business day after the document is presentedNo later than the 7th business day after the certification arrives
An opinion of counsel (§751.204)No later than the 10th business day after the document is presentedNo later than the 7th business day after the opinion arrives
An English translation (§751.205)No later than the 5th business day after the document is presentedNo later than the 7th business day after the translation arrives

The agent and the recipient can agree to extend those periods, and a recipient is not required to accept if the agent will not provide what was requested. A recipient also may not insist on its own different form for authority the document already grants, and may not require county recording unless a Texas law requires it.

An agent's certification is the agent's own written statement, under penalty of perjury, confirming facts about your parent, the agent, or the document — including, for a delayed-effect document, a physician's written statement that your parent is presently incapacitated. An opinion of counsel is a lawyer's written opinion on a legal question the recipient raises about the document. Neither is something a bank invents; both are named in the statute, and knowing their names is half of asking for them calmly.

What a recipient can ask for before accepting

Those timelines are a floor, not a promise. §751.206 lists grounds for refusing acceptance, including transactions the institution would not do for your parent anyway, conflicts with other law or a good-faith compliance policy, actual knowledge that the authority ended, a good-faith belief that the document is invalid or the agent is exceeding authority, pending litigation about the document, conflicting instructions from co-agents, and a report to a law enforcement or state agency of a good-faith belief that your parent may be subject to abuse, neglect or exploitation. If a recipient refuses, §751.207 requires it to give the agent a written statement of the reason. Ask for that statement in writing rather than accepting a verbal no — it is the document a Texas attorney will want to see first.

When a Texas power of attorney has to be recorded

Texas ties the recording requirement to particular real-property transactions rather than to the document itself. §751.151 requires the power of attorney to be recorded in the county clerk's office where the property is located, no later than the 30th day after the instrument is filed for recording, when the agent signs a real-property instrument that itself gets recorded — a deed, deed of trust, mortgage including a reverse mortgage, release, assignment, lien including a home equity lien, mineral lease, or similar. Miss that window and the recorded transaction is exposed to a title objection, which is a problem discovered at the worst moment, usually at a later closing. Outside those transactions, Texas law does not require the document to be filed anywhere, and §751.202 bars a recipient from demanding county recording unless a Texas law requires it. County clerk fees, formats and cover-sheet requirements are local; call that county's clerk or ask your title professional for the current fee and page format rather than assuming a statewide figure.

One more practical step before your agent drives to the courthouse: bring photo identification. Texas Local Government Code §191.010 lets a county clerk in a county that allows electronic filing require a person presenting a document in person for filing in the real property records to show a photo ID, and lists the forms that qualify — a state driver's license or personal ID card, a US military ID, a citizenship certificate, a permanent resident card, a municipal ID card, a tribal ID, a passport, or a Texas license to carry. Several of the large counties do require it. The clerk may not charge for copying it, and a document is not invalid merely because the clerk did not copy it — but showing up without ID can still cost your agent the trip.

What Texas county clerks charge to record a power of attorney

Texas sets only the floor. Local Government Code §118.011(a)(2) fixes the real property records filing fee at $5 for the first page and $4 for each additional page, plus $0.25 for each name beyond five that has to be indexed. Everything above that floor is optional local money the commissioners court adopts — a records management and preservation fee, a records archive fee, a records technology fee — which is why the same one-page document costs $15 in one county and $35 in another. Powers of attorney are recorded in the real property records, so this is the rate that applies when §751.151 requires recording.

The table below covers the ten most populous Texas counties. Each figure comes from that county clerk's own published fee schedule or recording page, linked in the county name, and all ten were checked on August 10, 2026. These fees change without notice; call before you mail a check.

CountyRecording fee, first pageEach additional pageWorth knowing before you send it
Harris$25$4Plus $0.25 for each name beyond five that has to be indexed
Dallas$26$4Any printing on the back of a page is charged as a full additional page
Tarrant$20$4Fee schedule effective January 1, 2024
Bexar$25$4Fees effective January 1, 2024. Some of the county's own FAQ pages still show $26 — the published fee schedule is the one to work from
Travis$25$4Commercial recording directories commonly list $26 for Travis; the clerk publishes $25
Collin$25$4The schedule names powers of attorney explicitly. Any marking on the back of a page counts as an extra page
Denton$25$4Plus a required $4 recording-information page, so a one-page document is $29, not $25
Fort Bend$15$4Lowest of the ten. The clerk has not adopted the records archive fee that most large counties charge
Hidalgo$35$4Highest of the ten
El PasoNot published in a source we could verifyNot published in a source we could verifyCall the County Clerk's Recording Division at 915-546-2071 for the current figure. Published third-party numbers for El Paso disagree with each other, so we are not repeating any of them

For any of the other 244 Texas counties, the instruction above stands: call that county's clerk. The Texas Association of Counties keeps a directory of official county websites covering all 254 counties, and every clerk's office publishes its own schedule.

One caution about the figures you will find elsewhere. Commercial recording-fee directories and title-service reference pages are widely out of step with the clerks: Dallas publishes $26 where a leading directory lists $25, Travis publishes $25 where several directories list $26, and Fort Bend has been listed at both $13 and $25 in reference material we reviewed against its actual $15 schedule. Bexar County publishes two different numbers on its own site. A check mailed for the wrong amount comes back unrecorded, which matters when a 30-day window is running. Use the clerk's own schedule, and call.

RecipientAsk before you need itBring or confirmDo not assume
Bank or financial institutionWhether it wants a copy, an agent's certification, an opinion of counsel, a translation, or internal reviewSigned document, your ID as agent, any requested certification; note the dates you requested and received thingsThat every document must be accepted immediately or without review
Health care providerHow to get the medical power of attorney into the chart, and who to contact about an activation questionSigned document, agent contact details, the practice's current instructionsThat signing alone lets an agent act, or override a parent who objects
Title company or county clerkWhether this transaction requires recording, the county's format and fee, and the 30-day timingThe recordable instrument, the power of attorney, and your photo IDA statewide filing step or a standard statewide fee

How to change or end authority, and when to get a Texas lawyer

Your parent can revoke either document while they are able to do so, and the two rule sets differ enough to be worth setting side by side.

TriggerDurable financial power of attorney (Ch. 751)Medical power of attorney (Ch. 166)
Your parent diesEnds the power of attorney (§751.131)Not one of the revocation events §166.155 lists, because there is no health care decision left to make. Neither document manages an estate — that is a will and the probate court
Your parent revokesEnds the power of attorney (§751.131)Ends it by oral or written notice to the agent or to a licensed or certified health or residential care provider, or by any other act showing a specific intent to revoke, without regard to your parent's mental state (§166.155)
Your parent signs a later document of the same kindDoes not revoke the earlier one unless the new document says so (§751.135)Revokes the earlier one (§166.155)
A stated end date arrives, or the purpose is accomplishedEnds the power of attorney (§751.131)The document exists indefinitely unless revoked; if your parent is incompetent when a stated expiration date arrives, the agent's authority continues until your parent can decide for themselves again (§166.164)
Divorce or annulment, where the agent is your parent's spouseEnds that agent's authority unless the document provides otherwise (§751.132)Revokes the spouse-agent's designation unless the document provides otherwise (§166.155)
The agent dies, resigns, is disqualified or becomes incapacitatedEnds that agent's authority; the power of attorney itself ends only if no successor is named (§751.131, §751.132)§166.155 addresses revocation by your parent, not the agent's own unavailability — which is why naming an alternate agent inside the document matters
A guardianship beginsA permanent guardian of the estate terminates the agent's powers on qualification, and a court may suspend them when a temporary guardian qualifies (§751.133)On a guardianship application, the probate court decides whether to suspend or revoke the agent's authority, and must consider the preferences your parent expressed in the document (§166.156)

A provider who is told of a revocation of the medical document must record it in the medical record immediately and notify the agent and the providers currently responsible for your parent's care.

Here is the assumption that causes the most trouble: a newer financial power of attorney does not automatically cancel an older one. §751.135 says executing a durable power of attorney does not revoke one your parent signed earlier unless the new document says the previous one — or all other durable powers of attorney — is revoked. If your parent has signed more than one over the years, inventory them. And because termination is not effective against someone who acts in good faith without actual knowledge of it (§751.134), revoking on paper is only half the job: notify every bank, insurer and professional holding a copy, in writing, and keep proof. The distribution log above is what makes that possible.

Neither document survives to manage an estate. A durable power of attorney ends at death, and appointing an executor is a separate matter handled through a will and the probate court.

When to look at these documents again

Signed is not finished. Put a note in the calendar to re-read both documents when any of these happens:

  • Your parent moves out of Texas, or buys or sells property in another state.
  • The agent or the successor agent moves far away, dies, becomes ill, or is no longer someone your parent would choose.
  • Your parent marries, divorces, or is widowed.
  • A significant new asset appears — a business interest, an inherited property, a new account your parent wants covered.
  • Texas HHS posts a revised version of either official form, or a section cited on this page is amended.
  • A bank, clinic or title company questions the document, refuses it, or asks for something the document does not grant.

None of these invalidates a document by itself. They are the moments when the document your parent signed years ago may no longer say what they would say now, and your parent is the one who decides whether to change it.

If you think an agent is misusing the authority

An agent under a Texas financial power of attorney is a fiduciary, and the accounting right described above belongs to your parent — not to a sibling, and not to you unless you are the agent's principal. That is the first thing to be clear about, because it shapes what you can actually do.

  • If your parent is able to ask, the direct route is your parent asking the agent for the records and the accounting §751.101 and the sections following require.
  • If your parent cannot ask, or asks and gets nothing, that is a question for a Texas attorney rather than a family confrontation.
  • If you believe your parent is being financially exploited, neglected or abused, report it to the Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400, 24 hours a day. If your parent is in immediate danger, call 911 first.
  • If your parent lives in a nursing facility or assisted living community, the Texas Long-Term Care Ombudsman at 800-252-2412 is free and confidential, and works from the county where your parent lives.
  • If a bank has already refused to act on the document, ask for the written statement of refusal §751.207 requires and keep it — it is the first thing a lawyer will want.

When to bring in a Texas attorney

  • Your parent's understanding, voluntariness, or vulnerability to pressure is genuinely in question, or family members disagree about it.
  • The document would grant gifts, trust changes, survivorship or beneficiary changes, broad delegation, business authority, or complex real-estate powers.
  • There are several powers of attorney, a former spouse still named as agent, no successor agent, or a guardianship proceeding underway.
  • A bank, provider, title company or other recipient refuses the document or imposes conditions your family does not understand.
  • An out-of-state, military, translated or custom-drafted document has to be relied on in Texas.
  • Your family wants to revoke authority but cannot retrieve every copy, or is worried about how an agent has been acting.

Try the free route before the paid one. The Legal Hotline for Texans, run by the nonprofit Texas Legal Services Center, gives free phone advice on estate planning topics including powers of attorney and advance directives to Texans aged 60 or older who live in Texas, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 800-622-2520, option 3. It provides counsel and advice only and does not draft documents — and your parent is the client, which is exactly right for a decision that belongs to them.

If your parent is under 60, or the question needs more than advice, the next free option is legal aid, and in Texas it is organized geographically. Three nonprofits funded to serve low-income Texans divide the state between them — Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, Lone Star Legal Aid, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid — and the Texas Legal Services Center publishes a county-by-county map of which organization covers where, with each one's intake number. Look up the county where your parent lives, not where you live. Eligibility is income-based and each organization sets its own case priorities, so ask directly whether they handle powers of attorney and advance directives before assuming either way.

For a paid consultation, the State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral and Information Service serves most Texas counties at 800-252-9690, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central. As of August 10, 2026, the service states that a referred lawyer provides a 30-minute consultation for no more than $20, and that it has no participating attorneys offering free or reduced-fee assistance; fees after the consultation are agreed between your parent and the lawyer. Referral routing follows the county where your parent lives, not where you live. Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Jefferson, Tarrant and Travis counties are served by their own certified referral programs, which the State Bar page links — if your parent lives in one of those six, call that county's program directly.

Questions Texas families ask about powers of attorney

What if my parent can no longer understand the document?

Then a power of attorney may no longer be the available path, and that is a question for a Texas attorney rather than a form. No one else can sign a power of attorney into existence for your parent. Where no valid document can solve the problem, a probate court guardianship is the separate route — but ask about less restrictive options first, and ask specifically whether a supported decision-making agreement fits, because it does not require the same threshold. Before anyone files anything, inventory what your parent may already have signed over the years: a power of attorney, a declaration of guardian, or a supported decision-making agreement may already exist and change the answer.

Will a power of attorney my parent signed in another state work in Texas?

Often, yes. A durable power of attorney executed outside Texas is valid here if its execution complied with the law of the jurisdiction that determines its meaning and effect, or with the federal requirements for a military power of attorney (§751.0023). An advance directive validly executed in another state gets the same effect as a Texas one, though it cannot authorize care Texas law prohibits (§166.005). Texas institutions may still ask questions, so have a lawyer review any out-of-state document you expect to rely on heavily.

I live outside Texas — whose rules apply, and do I have to sign anything?

Your parent's state governs, so Texas rules control documents your parent signs at home in Texas. You do not sign the power of attorney itself; your parent does, in front of the notary or witnesses the relevant chapter requires. What you can do from a distance is order the current official forms, schedule the appointment, line up qualifying witnesses, book a mobile notary, or arrange an online notarization with a commissioned Texas online notary — and call the bank or clinic ahead to ask which of those they will accept. Plan to be present if your parent wants you there.

Does a power of attorney help my parent qualify for Medicare, Medicaid or VA benefits?

No. A power of attorney says who may act; it does not change what a program covers or who is eligible, and no benefit program pays for creating one. A financial power of attorney can put your parent's agent in a position to gather documents, handle accounts and manage the paperwork an application generates — but whether a particular program accepts that agent for its own filings is the program's rule, not the document's, so ask each one directly. Social Security and the VA are the two that surprise families most, and they run their own appointment processes rather than accepting a power of attorney; the benefit-income section above explains what to do instead. If the underlying question is how a family actually pays for care, that belongs on our guide to paying for senior care.

Your next step

Take one action today: ask your parent which decisions they would want help with, and who they would want making them. Everything else on this page follows from their answer. If gifts, trusts, real estate, competing documents, or any question about understanding or pressure is part of the picture, call for legal advice before an appointment is booked rather than after it.

Daughter using the power of attorney smoothly at a Texas pharmacy counter, father waiting at ease

How this page was verified

Every rule on this page was read in the governing Texas statute or on the agency page that publishes the form or program, not in a secondary summary. Where a figure appears, it carries its unit, its source and the date it was checked.

What was checkedSourceDate checked
Financial power of attorney: execution, durability wording, acknowledgment, agent limits, fiduciary duties, termination, acceptance and refusal, recordingTexas Estates Code Chapter 751July 29, 2026; execution, activation and acceptance sections rechecked August 2, 2026
Statutory form, immediate-effect default, initialed powers, home equity signing-location notice, legal sufficiencyTexas Estates Code Chapter 752July 29, 2026; rechecked August 2, 2026
Medical power of attorney: execution, witness qualifications, disqualified agents, activation, decision standards, medical-information access, duration, revocationTexas Health and Safety Code Chapter 166July 29, 2026; rechecked August 2, 2026
Disclosure-statement requirement and its statutory formTexas Health and Safety Code §§166.162–166.164August 10, 2026
Directive to physicians and out-of-hospital DNR execution rulesTexas Health and Safety Code §§166.032, 166.082August 10, 2026
Declaration of guardian in advance of need, including express disqualificationTexas Estates Code Chapter 1104, subchapter EAugust 10, 2026
Supported decision-making agreement: scope, limits, execution, third-party relianceTexas Estates Code Chapter 1357August 10, 2026
Notary acknowledgment fee cap of $10 for the first signature and $1 for each additional, and the five-year inflation adjustmentTexas Government Code §406.024August 10, 2026
Whether an adjusted notary fee schedule has been published under §406.024(c)Texas Secretary of State, Notary Public Educational Information — the office publishes the current maximums there; confirm before relying on the statutory figureAugust 10, 2026
Online notarization surcharge of up to $25Texas Secretary of State, online notary educational informationAugust 10, 2026
Official form titles and revision dates: statutory durable power of attorney 9/2017, medical power of attorney 5/2024Texas HHS advance directives form pagesJuly 29, 2026
Benefit income: representative payee rules, Form SSA-11, advance designation, VA fiduciarySocial Security Administration and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs program pagesAugust 10, 2026
Legal-help routes, eligibility, hours and the $20 referral consultationTexas Legal Services Center; State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral and Information ServiceAugust 10, 2026
Statutory recording fee floor and the optional local fees that sit on top of itTexas Local Government Code §118.011August 10, 2026
Photo-identification authority for in-person recordingTexas Local Government Code §191.010August 10, 2026
Recording fees for the ten most populous countiesEach county clerk's own published fee schedule or recording page, linked in the county tableAugust 10, 2026 — El Paso County's figure could not be verified from a county-published source and is labeled as unpublished rather than estimated

Next scheduled review: after the 2027 Texas legislative session, or sooner if a cited section is amended. County recording fees are rechecked semi-annually. Recheck before your parent signs, and before you rely on a signed document.

Sources and last verified date

Last verified: August 10, 2026

Next review: February 10, 2027 (county recording fees are rechecked semi-annually; the full page is rechecked after the 2027 Texas legislative session, or sooner if a cited section is amended)

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