Power of attorney, health care directive and guardianship in Michigan

Financial power of attorney in Michigan

Law and official form

Law

Uniform Power of Attorney Act (1998 PA 386 sections on durable powers replaced; 2023 PA 187, MCL 556.201 to 556.505)

Uniform Power of Attorney Act

Yes (effective July 1, 2024)

Official form

Michigan Statutory Form Power of Attorney (with optional Agent's Acknowledgment template in MCL 556.402)Published by Michigan Legislature

You do not have to use it.

Optional: a document 'substantially in the following form may be used'. The form has blocks for two witnesses and a notary. It covers money and property only, not health care.

Law: MCL 556.201, 556.505; MCL 2023 PA 187; MCL 556.401, 556.402

Signing rules

How to sign

To be durable (to keep working if you lose capacity), the power of attorney must be either acknowledged before a notary public or signed in front of two witnesses who also sign it. A power of attorney signed without a notary or two witnesses is not durable. Banks and others must generally accept a notarized (acknowledged) power of attorney, but a witnessed-only one does not get that protection.

Who signs

Signed by you, or by another person you direct to sign your name in your conscious presence.

Notary

A notary or witnesses (your choice)

Witnesses

2 (instead of a notary)

Who cannot witness

A witness may not be an agent named in the power of attorney. One of the two witnesses may be the notary who takes your acknowledgment. If someone else signs your name for you, two witnesses are required even if it is also notarized.

Agent's acknowledgment

Before acting under a durable power of attorney, the agent must sign an acknowledgment of the agent's duties containing the statements in the 'Agent's Acknowledgment' template in MCL 556.402. Not signing it does not cancel the agent's authority or reduce the agent's duties.

Law: MCL 556.213

Electronic signing

Under the act, 'sign' includes an electronic symbol or process and a power of attorney can be an electronic record. A temporary law allowed remote witnessing of durable powers of attorney by two-way audiovisual technology only for documents signed from April 30, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

Law: MCL 556.202; MCL 700.1202

Law: MCL 556.204, 556.205, 556.213

Durable and springing

Is it durable?

A power of attorney made on or after July 1, 2024 that is notarized or signed before two witnesses is durable unless it expressly says it ends if you become incapacitated. One that is neither notarized nor witnessed is not durable.

Law: MCL 556.204

Durable unless it says otherwise?

Yes: it continues if you lose capacity unless it says otherwise.

Starting later (springing)

A power of attorney is effective when signed unless it says it starts on a later date or event. You can name a person to decide in writing that the event (such as your incapacity) has happened. If it starts on incapacity and you named no one, a physician or licensed psychologist can find in writing that you are incapacitated.

Law: MCL 556.209

What an agent can and cannot do

Needs express permission

• Create, amend, revoke or end a living (inter vivos) trust
• Make a gift
• Create or change rights of survivorship
• Create or change a beneficiary designation
• Delegate the agent's authority to someone else
• Waive your right to be a beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity, including a retirement plan survivor benefit
• Exercise fiduciary powers you are allowed to delegate
• Access the content of your electronic communications
• Act on a bank, securities or other financial account in a foreign country

No power of attorney can

The statutory form states that it does not let the agent make health care decisions for you or use your powers as a parent or guardian over a minor child or ward.

Law: MCL 556.401

Agent duties, pay and court review

Agent duties

• Act according to your reasonable expectations they actually know, and otherwise in your best interest
• Act in good faith
• Act only within the authority you gave
• Keep reasonable records of receipts, payments and transactions
• Unless the document says otherwise: act loyally for your benefit, avoid conflicts of interest, act with the care of a prudent person, cooperate with your health care decision-maker, and try to preserve your estate plan
• Show records within 30 days when asked by you, your guardian or conservator, adult protective services, or after your death your personal representative

Agent pay

Unless the document says otherwise, the agent is entitled to repayment of reasonable expenses and to reasonable compensation.

Law: MCL 556.212

Asking a court to review an agent

You, the agent, your guardian or conservator, your health care decision-maker, your presumptive heirs, beneficiaries, your personal representative, adult protective services, a caregiver or other interested person, and a person asked to accept the power of attorney can ask the probate court to interpret it or review the agent's conduct. If you have capacity and ask, the court must dismiss the petition unless your request results from undue influence, fraud or duress. An agent who embezzles or wrongfully takes your property can owe three times its value.

Law: MCL 556.216; MCL 556.217

Law: MCL 556.214

When it ends and how to revoke it

It ends when

• You die
• You become incapacitated, if the power of attorney is not durable
• You revoke it
• An event named in the document happens
• Its limited purpose is accomplished
• The agent dies, becomes incapacitated, resigns or is revoked, and no successor agent is named
• An action is filed to divorce, annul or legally separate you from your agent-spouse

Divorce ends a spouse's authority

Yes · Divorce rules in Michigan (Divorce Law Map)

How to revoke

You can revoke the power of attorney, or one agent's authority, while you have capacity. The act does not prescribe a method; a signed written revocation sent to the agent and to anyone who has the power of attorney is the clearest record. Signing a new power of attorney does not revoke an older one unless the new one says so.

Telling others

Tell the agent and give copies to banks and others who have the power of attorney. An agent or other person who acts in good faith without actual knowledge of the revocation is protected, and those acts bind you.

Law: MCL 556.210(1)-(2); MCL 556.210(1)(c), (2)(a), (4), (6)

Banks, other states and real estate

Banks and other businesses

A person asked to accept a notarized (acknowledged) power of attorney must accept it, or ask for the agent's acknowledgment, a certification, a translation or a lawyer's opinion, within 7 business days, and then accept within 5 business days after getting what they asked for. They cannot demand their own form. They may refuse only for listed reasons, for example a good faith belief the power is invalid, a report to adult protective services, or a freeze under the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act. A wrongful refusal can lead to a court order and payment of attorney fees and costs.

Law: MCL 556.219, 556.220

Signed in another state

A power of attorney signed outside Michigan is valid here if its signing followed the law of the state it names, the state where you lived when you signed, or the federal military power of attorney rules. A photocopy or electronically sent copy has the same effect as the original unless the document says otherwise.

Law: MCL 556.206

Health care directive in Michigan

The document and its form

Document

Patient advocate designation

Signing rules

How to sign

Sign and date the patient advocate designation in front of two qualified witnesses, who also sign. A notary is not part of the statutory rule. Before it can be used, it must be made part of your medical record, a copy must go to your patient advocate, and the patient advocate must sign an acceptance with the statements listed in MCL 700.5507(5). The designation must also say that the patient advocate's authority can be used only when you are unable to participate in medical or mental health treatment decisions.

Who signs

Signed and dated by you, voluntarily, in writing. You must be 18 or older and of sound mind.

Notary

Not required

Witnesses

2

Who cannot witness

A witness cannot be your spouse, parent, child, grandchild, brother or sister, presumptive heir, a known beneficiary under your will, your physician or your patient advocate, or an employee of your life or health insurer, of a health facility treating you, of a home for the aged where you live, or of a community mental health program or hospital giving you mental health services. Witnesses may sign only if you appear of sound mind and free of duress, fraud or undue influence.

Nursing facilities and special settings

Employees of a health facility treating you, of a home for the aged where you live, or of a community mental health services program or hospital providing you mental health services cannot be witnesses.

Electronic signing

Remote witnessing by two-way audiovisual technology was allowed only for designations signed from April 30, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

Law: MCL 700.1202

Law: MCL 700.5506(3)-(4), 700.5507(4)-(5)

Who can be your agent and what the agent can do

Who cannot be your agent

Your patient advocate must be an individual 18 or older. The statute does not list other people who are barred from serving.

Law: MCL 700.5506(1)

When the agent starts

The patient advocate can act only when you are unable to participate in medical treatment decisions. Your attending physician and another physician or licensed psychologist must examine you and put that finding in writing in your medical record, and review it at least once a year. For mental health treatment decisions, a physician and a mental health practitioner must certify in writing that you cannot give informed consent. The authority is suspended if you regain the ability to decide. A dispute can go to the probate court, which must hold a hearing within 7 days.

Law: MCL 700.5508, 700.5509(2), 700.5515(2)

Decisions an agent cannot make

A patient advocate can decide to withhold or withdraw treatment that would allow you to die only if you said clearly and convincingly that they may make that decision and that you know it could allow your death. A patient advocate cannot make a decision to withhold or withdraw treatment from a pregnant patient that would result in her death. They cannot be paid (only reimbursed expenses), cannot delegate without your prior permission, and can consent to forced mental health medication or inpatient hospitalization (other than as a formal voluntary patient) only if you clearly and convincingly authorized it. Your current wish to receive life-extending treatment always binds the patient advocate.

Law: MCL 700.5507(5), 700.5509, 700.5511(1), 700.5512

Revoking and conflicting documents

Revoking your agent

You can revoke a patient advocate designation at any time and in any manner that communicates your intent, even if you can no longer participate in medical decisions. If the revocation is not written, a person who witnesses it must describe it in writing, sign it, and notify the patient advocate if possible. A later designation that conflicts with the earlier one also revokes it. If you waived your right to revoke as to mental health treatment, that treatment can continue for up to 30 days after you communicate the revocation.

Law: MCL 700.5510(1), 700.5515(1)

Revoking your instructions

Your written wishes are part of the patient advocate designation and are revoked the same way.

Telling others

A physician, mental health professional or health facility that has notice of the revocation must note it in your record and bedside chart and notify the patient advocate. A patient advocate who acts in good faith without actual knowledge of the revocation is protected.

Divorce ends a spouse's authority

Yes · Divorce rules in Michigan (Divorce Law Map)

Conflicting documents

A later patient advocate designation revokes an earlier one expressly or to the extent they conflict.

Law: MCL 700.5510(1)(e)

Law: MCL 700.5510

If you have no directive

Who decides without a directive

Michigan's statutes do not set a general priority list of family members who may make medical decisions for an adult who has no patient advocate and no guardian.

Other states, registry and medical orders

POLST (medical orders)

Michigan Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment (MI-POST)

Official page

Mental health directive

A patient advocate designation can cover mental health treatment. You can waive your right to revoke it as to mental health treatment; if you then revoke, treatment cannot continue for more than 30 days. A mental health professional must follow the wishes you wrote unless an exception applies, such as a psychiatric emergency.

Law: MCL 700.5511(4), 700.5515

Law: MCL 333.5671 to 333.5685 (Part 56B, Public Health Code)

Guardianship and conservatorship in Michigan

What guardianship or conservatorship is

What it is called

Guardian of a legally incapacitated individual (full or limited guardian); conservator for a protected individual's estate

When a court may appoint one

The court may appoint a guardian only if it finds by clear and convincing evidence that the person is incapacitated and that a guardian is needed to provide continuing care and supervision. The court must grant only the powers and time needed and design the guardianship to encourage maximum self-reliance. If the person lacks capacity for some but not all tasks, the court must appoint a limited, not full, guardian. A guardian cannot get powers held by a valid patient advocate.

Law: MCL 700.5306

Kinds

• Full guardian
• Limited guardian
• Temporary guardian
• Standby guardian
• Conservator

Law: MCL 700.5303 to 700.5314; MCL 600.880a

Who can ask, which court and your own choice

Who may ask

The individual or any person interested in the individual's welfare. Before a petition is filed, the court must give the petitioner written information about alternatives to a full guardianship.

Law: MCL 700.5303

Court

Probate court in the county where the individual resides or is present

Choosing your own

In a power of attorney you can nominate a conservator or guardian of your estate or person; the court must follow your most recent nomination if consistent with priority and suitability rules. For a guardian, the court gives priority to a person you choose or nominated in a durable power of attorney or other writing, then to your patient advocate or attorney-in-fact.

Law: MCL 556.208(1); MCL 700.5313(2)

Effect on a power of attorney

If a conservator or guardian of your estate is appointed, your financial power of attorney does not end; the agent becomes accountable to the conservator as well as to you, and the agent's authority continues unless the court limits, suspends or ends it. A guardian cannot make medical or mental health decisions that your patient advocate is designated to make, unless the court changes this for cause.

Law: MCL 556.208(2); MCL 700.5306(5)

Cost, fee waiver and forms

Filing fee

$150 filing fee to start a guardianship or limited guardianship proceeding; later motions $20, but not when the moving party is the subject of the guardianship.

Law: MCL 600.880a; MCL 600.880b

Fee waiver

Fee Waiver Request, form MC 20 (rev. 1/26)

Forms

• Petition for Appointment of Guardian of Incapacitated Individual (PC 625, rev. 7/24)
• Fee Waiver Request (MC 20, rev. 1/26)

Steps

Steps

Other options and where to report abuse

Less restrictive options

• Limited guardian: A guardian with only the powers the court lists, used when the person can do some but not all tasks.
• Conservator: A court-appointed manager for money and property only.
• Patient advocate designation: A document naming someone to make medical and mental health decisions when you cannot.
• Durable power of attorney: A document naming an agent for money and property, with or without limits on purpose, authority or time.
• Do-not-resuscitate order or physician orders for scope of treatment (POST): Medical orders about resuscitation or other treatment that can make a guardian unnecessary for those decisions.

Report abuse or exploitation

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Adult Protective Services · 855-444-3911

Call or text the Eldercare Locator to find your local adult protective services: 1-800-677-1116 · eldercare.acl.gov

Good to know in Michigan

• Michigan's Uniform Power of Attorney Act took effect July 1, 2024 and replaced the old durable power of attorney sections of the Estates and Protected Individuals Code.

  Law: MCL 556.504, 556.505

• Whether a Michigan power of attorney is durable depends on how it was signed: notarized or two witnesses makes it durable unless it says otherwise; neither makes it non-durable.

  Law: MCL 556.204

• A patient advocate must sign a written acceptance before acting, and the designation must be in your medical record before it is used.

  Law: MCL 700.5506(3), 700.5507(4)

• Michigan Legal Help states that Michigan has no law that makes living wills binding; your wishes can still guide your patient advocate.

Changes in 2024–2026

2023 PA 187 took effect July 1, 2024 and repealed MCL 700.5501-700.5505. Pending, not law as of October 2026: 2025 HB 4418 (patient surrogate for health care decisions; passed the House 9/18/2025, reported with a substitute by the Senate committee 1/29/2026) and 2025 HB 4677 (supported decision-making agreements; reported by House committee 8/13/2025).

Law: Uniform Power of Attorney Act, MCL 556.201-556.505

Questions about powers of attorney in Michigan