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Terms Used In Michigan Laws 556.301

  • Agent: means a person granted authority to act for a principal under a power of attorney, whether denominated an agent, attorney-in-fact, or otherwise. See Michigan Laws 556.202
  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Michigan Laws 556.202
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • power: means a power of attorney. See Michigan Laws 556.202
  • Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. Source: OCC
  • Power of attorney: means a written record that grants authority to an agent to act in 1 or more matters on behalf of the principal, whether or not the term power of attorney is used. See Michigan Laws 556.202
  • Principal: means an individual who grants authority to an agent in a power of attorney. See Michigan Laws 556.202
  • Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, or legal or equitable, or any interest or right in such a thing. See Michigan Laws 556.202
  • Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
  • State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Michigan Laws 556.202
    (1) An agent under a power of attorney may do the following on behalf of the principal or with the principal’s property only if the power expressly grants the agent the authority and exercise of the authority is not prohibited by another agreement or instrument to which the authority or property is subject or the authority is granted by judicial order:
    (a) Create, amend, revoke, or terminate an inter vivos trust.
    (b) Make a gift.
    (c) Create or change rights of survivorship.
    (d) Create or change a beneficiary designation.
    (e) Delegate authority granted under the power of attorney.
    (f) Waive the principal’s right to be a beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity, including a survivor benefit under a retirement plan.
    (g) Exercise fiduciary powers that the principal has authority to delegate.
    (h) Exercise authority over the content of electronic communications, as defined in 18 USC 2510(12), sent or received by the principal.
    (i) Exercise authority over any bank, securities, or other financial account in a foreign country within the meaning of 31 C.F.R. § 1010.350.
    (2) Notwithstanding a grant of authority to do an act described in subsection (1), unless the power of attorney provides otherwise, an agent who is not an ancestor, spouse, or descendant of the principal shall not exercise authority under a power of attorney to create in the agent, or in an individual to whom the agent owes a legal obligation of support, an interest in the principal’s property, whether by gift, right of survivorship, beneficiary designation, disclaimer, or otherwise. The terms of a power of attorney may expand or narrow the class of agents permitted by this subsection to create in the agent, or in an individual to whom the agent owes a legal obligation of support, an interest in the principal’s property.
    (3) Subject to subsections (1), (2), (4), and (5), if a power of attorney grants to an agent authority to do all acts that a principal could do, the agent has the general authority described in section 204 to 216.
    (4) Unless the power of attorney provides otherwise, a grant of authority to make a gift is subject to section 217.
    (5) Subject to subsections (1), (2), and (4), if the subjects over which authority is granted by a power of attorney are similar or overlap, the broadest authority controls.
    (6) Authority granted in a power of attorney is exercisable with respect to property that the principal has when the power is executed or acquires later, whether or not the property is located in this state and whether or not the authority is exercised or the power is executed in this state.
    (7) An act performed by an agent under a power of attorney has the same effect and inures to the benefit of and binds the principal and the principal’s successors in interest as if the principal had performed the act.