Power of attorney, health care directive and guardianship in Utah

Financial power of attorney in Utah

Law and official form

Law

Uniform Power of Attorney Act

Uniform Power of Attorney Act

Yes

Official form

Statutory Form Power of Attorney (Utah Code 75A-2-301), with optional Agent's Certification (75A-2-302)Published by Utah State Legislature, Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel

You do not have to use it.

You do not have to use this form, but any power of attorney must be signed before a notary. The form says it does not authorize health care decisions.

Law: Utah Code §§ 75A-2-102 to 75A-2-403; Utah Code §§ 75A-2-301, 75A-2-302

Signing rules

How to sign

Sign the power of attorney before a notary public (or another official authorized to take acknowledgments). If you live in, or are about to move into, a hospital, assisted living, skilled nursing or similar facility, you may not name the facility's owner, operator, health care provider or employee as agent unless they are your spouse, legal guardian or next of kin, or the authority is limited to helping you qualify for Medicaid.

Who signs

Signed by you, or by another person you direct to sign your name in your conscious presence. You must have enough mental capacity to understand that you are appointing an agent to handle your financial affairs.

Notary

Required

Witnesses

None required

Agent's acknowledgment

No signed acceptance is required. An agent accepts by acting as agent or by other conduct showing acceptance.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-113

Electronic signing

Since May 6, 2026, Utah's Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act covers durable powers of attorney: a power of attorney or signature cannot be denied legal effect just because it is electronic, and the notary requirement is met when the notary attaches an electronic signature and the other required information to the electronic document. The Uniform Power of Attorney Act's relation to the federal E-SIGN Act is in Utah Code 75A-2-402.

Law: Utah Code 75-13-204, 75-13-206; Laws of Utah 2026, ch. 302

Law: Utah Code § 75A-2-105

Durable and springing

Is it durable?

A power of attorney is durable unless it expressly says it ends if you become incapacitated.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-104

Durable unless it says otherwise?

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

Starting later (springing)

A power of attorney takes effect when signed unless it says it starts at a future date or event. You can name one or more people to decide in writing that the event has happened. If it starts on your incapacity and no one you named can decide, a physician can determine it in writing (or an attorney, judge or government official if you are missing, detained or unable to return to the U.S.).

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-109

What an agent can and cannot do

Needs express permission

• Create, amend, revoke or end a living trust
• Make a gift
• Create or change rights of survivorship
• Create or change a beneficiary designation
• Delegate authority under the power of attorney
• Waive your right to be a beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity, including a retirement survivor benefit
• Exercise fiduciary powers you have authority to delegate
• Disclaim property or otherwise exercise a power of appointment

No power of attorney can

Unless the power of attorney says otherwise, an agent who is not your ancestor, spouse or descendant cannot use it to give themselves (or someone they must support) an interest in your property. A power of attorney under this chapter does not cover health care decisions.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-201(2); Utah Code 75A-2-103(2)

Law: Utah Code § 75A-2-201(1)

Agent duties, pay and court review

Agent duties

• Act in line with your reasonable expectations as far as the agent knows them, and otherwise in your best interest
• Act in good faith and only within the authority you gave
• Act loyally for your benefit and avoid conflicts of interest
• Act with the care, competence and diligence agents ordinarily use
• Keep a record of all receipts, payments and transactions
• Cooperate with your health care decision-maker
• Try to preserve your estate plan, if known and in your best interest

Agent pay

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

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-112

Asking a court to review an agent

You, your agent, a guardian or conservator, your health care decision-maker, your spouse, parent or descendant, a presumptive heir, a beneficiary, a protective agency, your caregiver or another interested person, and a person asked to accept the power can ask a court to interpret it or review the agent's conduct. The court must dismiss the petition at your request unless it finds you lack capacity to revoke.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-116

Law: Utah Code § 75A-2-114

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 the power of attorney
• The power of attorney says it ends
• Its purpose is accomplished
• You revoke the agent's authority, or the agent dies, becomes incapacitated or resigns, and no other agent is named
• For a spouse-agent, when an action for divorce, annulment or legal separation is filed, unless the document says otherwise

Divorce ends a spouse's authority

Yes · Divorce rules in Utah (Divorce Law Map)

How to revoke

You can revoke or amend your power of attorney by the method the document sets, if the document says that method is the only one. Otherwise you can use any method that shows your intent by clear and convincing evidence. Signing a new power of attorney does not revoke an old one unless the new one says so.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-110(7); Utah Code 75A-2-110(6)

Telling others

Revocation does not affect an agent or other person who acts in good faith without actual knowledge of it; their acts still bind you.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-110(4)

Law: Utah Code § 75A-2-110; Utah Code § 75A-2-110(4), (6), (7)

Banks, other states and real estate

Banks and other businesses

A person asked to accept an acknowledged (notarized) power of attorney must accept it, or ask for an agent's certification, an English translation or a lawyer's opinion, within 7 business days, and then accept within 5 business days after receiving it. It may not demand a different form. Exceptions include not otherwise dealing with you, a conflict with federal law, a good-faith belief the power is invalid, and a report of suspected abuse to the Division of Aging and Adult Services. Wrongful refusal can lead to a court order and liability for attorney fees and costs.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-119, 75A-2-120

Signed in another state

A power of attorney signed outside Utah is valid if its signing met the law of the state named in it (or, if none, where it was signed), or the federal military power of attorney rules.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-106(3), 75A-2-107

Real estate

A photocopy or electronically sent copy of a power of attorney has the same effect as the original. For a real estate transaction, the copy may be recorded in the county where the property is located when attached to an affidavit of the person accepting the power of attorney.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-106(4)

Health care directive in Utah

The document and its form

Document

Advance health care directive (power of attorney for health care and/or health care instruction)

Official form

Advance Health Care Directive - optional form (Utah Code 75A-9-110)Published by Utah State LegislatureVersion: Statutory text effective January 1, 2026 (Laws of Utah 2025, ch. 439)

You do not have to use it.

Living will

Health care instruction

Part of the directive.

A health care instruction states your goals, preferences and wishes about future health care. It can be written or not, can be in the same document as a power of attorney for health care, and a health care professional you give it to must record it in your medical record. A newer instruction revokes an older one to the extent they conflict.

Law: Utah Code § 75A-9-110; Utah Code §§ 75A-9-101(12), 75A-9-106

Signing rules

How to sign

To name a health care agent, sign the power of attorney for health care with one qualified adult witness present (in person, by video, or in some cases by phone). No notary is needed. Health care instructions alone do not have to be written or witnessed, but the optional statutory form asks for a witness when you name an agent.

Who signs

A power of attorney for health care must be in a record and signed by you.

Notary

Not required

Witnesses

1

Who cannot witness

One adult witness who reasonably believes you are acting voluntarily and knowingly, and who is present when you sign or when you say the document reflects your wishes. The witness cannot be your agent, your agent's spouse or cohabitant, or (if you live or receive care in a nursing home or assisted living facility) the facility's owner, operator, employee or contractor.

Nursing facilities and special settings

If you live or receive care in a nursing home or assisted living facility, its owner, operator, employee or contractor cannot be your witness, and cannot be your agent unless they are your family member, cohabitant or a descendant of your cohabitant.

Electronic signing

The witness counts as present if in the same place, by real-time audio-video, or by real-time audio if the witness knows you or can confirm your identity by your answers. A directive, a revocation or a signature cannot be denied legal effect just because it is electronic.

Law: Utah Code §§ 75A-9-101(12), 75A-9-107(4), (5), 75A-9-115(3)

Who can be your agent and what the agent can do

Who cannot be your agent

A person cannot act as your health care agent if a court finds they pose a danger to your well-being, or if they own, operate, work for or contract with a nursing home or assisted living facility where you live or receive care, unless they are your family member, cohabitant or a descendant of your cohabitant.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-107(2)

When the agent starts

Unless your power of attorney for health care says the agent's power starts right away, it starts when you are found (under the Act's procedure or by a court) to lack capacity to make a health care decision, and stops if you are later found to have capacity or you object to the finding.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-117(1), (3)

Decisions an agent cannot make

Your agent cannot consent to your voluntary admission to a mental health facility unless your written directive specifically allows it, and then only for the number of days you set. Your agent cannot consent to a nursing home stay intended to last more than 100 days if another living arrangement is feasible, you object, or you are not terminally ill, unless your written directive specifically allows it. If you have a long-term disability and routinely use tube feeding, fluids or a ventilator, the agent may stop them only in the situations the law lists.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-117(5)-(7), 75A-9-118

Revoking and conflicting documents

Revoking your agent

You can revoke the appointment of an agent by any act that clearly shows you intend to revoke, including telling a health care professional, unless a court (or a confirmed finding under the Act) says you lack capacity to revoke.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-114(1), (2)

Revoking your instructions

Health care instructions can be revoked in whole or in part the same way, by any act that clearly shows your intent.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-114

Telling others

An agent or default surrogate who learns of a revocation must tell a responsible health care professional as soon as reasonably feasible, and the professional must record it in your medical record.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-116(5), 75A-9-120(4)

Divorce ends a spouse's authority

Yes · Divorce rules in Utah (Divorce Law Map)

Conflicting documents

A later advance health care directive revokes an earlier one to the extent they conflict. Special rules apply between a mental-health-only directive and other directives.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-109, 75A-9-114(3)

Law: Utah Code § 75A-9-114

If you have no directive

Who decides without a directive

If you lack capacity and have no available agent or guardian with health care authority, a default surrogate can decide, in this order of priority, unless your directive says otherwise. If members of the same class disagree, the professional follows the majority. You can disqualify someone in a signed record or by telling them, another person or a health care professional. A professional may ask the surrogate for a declaration under penalty of perjury.

1. An adult you identified (other than in a power of attorney for health care) to decide for you
2. Your spouse (not if a divorce, annulment or separation is filed or decreed, you agreed in a record to separate, or the spouse deserted you for more than one year)
3. Your adult child or parent
4. Your cohabitant
5. Your adult sibling
6. Your adult grandchild or grandparent
7. An adult who routinely helped you with supported decision-making in the last six months
8. An adult stepchild you actively parented and still have a relationship with
9. An adult who has shown special care and concern for you and knows your values
10. A physician designated under the law's procedure (in a health care institution, with ethics committee consensus)

Law: Utah Code §§ 75A-9-111, 75A-9-112, 75A-9-113

Other states, registry and medical orders

Signed in another state

A directive made outside Utah is valid if it complies with the law of the state named in it (or where it was made) or with Utah's Act. Directives made before January 1, 2026 stay valid if they complied with this chapter or with the law where and when they were made.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-115(1), 75A-9-128

POLST (medical orders)

Provider Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)

Mental health directive

You can make an advance mental health care directive covering only mental health care, with instructions (for example about facilities, medications, admission and crisis care) and/or an agent only for mental health decisions. A later mental-health-only appointment does not revoke an earlier general agent appointment.

Law: Utah Code 75A-9-108, 75A-9-109

Guardianship and conservatorship in Utah

What guardianship or conservatorship is

What it is called

Guardian (limited or full), emergency guardian, temporary guardian; conservator for property

When a court may appoint one

'Incapacitated' means an adult's ability to receive and evaluate information, make and communicate decisions, or provide for necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, health care or safety is so impaired that, even with appropriate technological help, they cannot meet essential requirements for financial protection or physical health, safety or self-care. The court must find incapacity by clear and convincing evidence and that the appointment is necessary or desirable. It must prefer a limited guardianship and may grant a full guardianship only if no other alternative exists, with a specific finding. The respondent must have a lawyer.

Law: Utah Code 75-1-201; Utah Code 75-5-304; Utah Code 75-5-303

Kinds

• Limited guardian (preferred)
• Full guardian
• Emergency guardian
• Temporary guardian
• Conservator, or other protective order for property

Law: Utah Code §§ 75-1-201, 75-5-303, 75-5-304, 75-5-310, 75-5-310.5, 75-5-401

Who can ask, which court and your own choice

Who may ask

The allegedly incapacitated person or any person interested in their welfare.

Law: Utah Code 75-5-303(1)

Court

District court in the county where the respondent lives or is present.

Choosing your own

You can nominate a conservator or guardian in your power of attorney; the court must follow your most recent nomination unless there is good cause or disqualification. You can also name a preferred guardian in a health care instruction.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-108; Utah Code 75A-9-106(1)(d)

Effect on a power of attorney

When a conservatorship petition is filed, the court must consider whether your power of attorney is adequate to manage your estate without a conservator. If a conservator is appointed, your agent is accountable to the conservator as well as to you, and the power of attorney continues unless the court limits, suspends or ends it.

Law: Utah Code 75A-2-108

Cost, fee waiver and forms

Fee waiver

The Utah Courts guardianship page links to the courts' fee waiver forms; the court appoints a lawyer for the respondent at the respondent's cost unless the respondent and their parents are indigent.

Law: Utah Code 75-5-303(2)(b)

Forms

• Notice of Hearing, Rights, and Adverse Consequences of a Guardianship for an Adult - Respondent
• Notice of Hearing, Rights, and Adverse Consequences of a Guardianship for an Adult - Interested Person
• People Who Must be Notified in Guardianship and Conservatorship Proceeding
• Report on Clinical Evaluation
• Request to Appoint an Attorney to Represent the Respondent
• Acceptance of Appointment
• Letters of Limited Guardianship
• Objection to Petition to Appoint a Guardian or Conservator for an Adult
• Utah District Court Cover Sheet for Probate Actions

Steps

Steps

Other options and where to report abuse

Supported decision-making

Supported Decision-making Agreements

Effective 2025 (Laws of Utah 2025, ch. 533)

You choose supporters who help you understand information, make and communicate your own decisions; supporters may not make decisions for you, including health care decisions. A decision you make with support counts as your own decision. You can revoke by written notice to all parties, and a supporter can withdraw the same way. Unless the agreement says otherwise, it ends if you later sign a power of attorney, health care directive or mental health declaration that does not expressly continue it, or a court appoints a guardian or conservator. A court may not treat signing an agreement as evidence of incapacity.

In writing, with an effective date, at least one supporter and the required descriptions, signed (in ink or electronically) by you, each supporter (with their relationship, willingness, duties acknowledgment and attestation), any guardian, conservator or other qualifying person whose area is covered, and either two witnesses or a notary public.

Source: Official text

Less restrictive options

• Arranging help and services: Helping the person make and carry out their own decisions with support from family, community and government services.
• Representative payee: A person appointed by a government agency (Social Security, VA, Railroad Retirement Board) to receive and manage that agency's payments.
• Power of attorney: An agent manages money and property; little or no outside supervision.
• Trust, including a discretionary trust for a person with disabilities: A trustee manages property for a beneficiary; a special trust can protect government benefits.
• Health care agent and advance health care directive: You name an agent and give health care instructions.
• Supported decision-making agreement: Supporters help you make your own important decisions.

Report abuse or exploitation

Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services - Adult Protective Services · 1-800-371-7897

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

Law: Utah Code §§ 75-5-704, 75-5-706, 75-5-707, 75-5-708

Good to know in Utah

• A Utah financial power of attorney must be signed before a notary.

  Law: Utah Code 75A-2-105

• Since January 1, 2026, Utah follows the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act: one adult witness for a health care agent appointment, a new optional form, and a long default-surrogate list that includes cohabitants and supported-decision-making helpers.

  Law: Utah Code 75A-9-107, 75A-9-110, 75A-9-111

• A health care witness can attend by live video, or by phone if they know you or can confirm your identity.

  Law: Utah Code 75A-9-107(5)

• Unless it says otherwise, a supported decision-making agreement ends if you later sign a power of attorney or health care directive that does not expressly continue it.

  Law: Utah Code 75-5-707(5)

Changes in 2024–2026

Laws of Utah 2024, ch. 364 (effective Sept. 1, 2024): Uniform Power of Attorney Act renumbered from Title 75, Chapter 9 to Title 75A, Chapter 2. Laws of Utah 2025, ch. 310 and ch. 338 amended 75A-2-102, 75A-2-105 (facility-agent limit) and 75A-2-120; ch. 338 also amended guardianship findings (75-5-304). Laws of Utah 2025, ch. 439: Uniform Health Care Decisions Act, effective January 1, 2026, replacing the former Advance Health Care Directive Act. Laws of Utah 2025, ch. 533: Supported Decision-making Agreements (75-5-701 to 75-5-709). Laws of Utah 2026, ch. 302: Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act, which covers electronic durable powers of attorney and advance health care directives, electronic notarization and electronic witnessing ('electronic presence').

Law: Title 75A, Chapter 9

Questions about powers of attorney in Utah