Agents owe fiduciary duties including loyalty, care, and record-keeping. Abuse includes self-gifting, commingling, and transactions benefiting the agent. Many statutes require agents to account on demand.
Gifting authority must be expressly granted.
Alternative Names:
POA Abuse|Agent Misconduct
Why it Matters?
Express gifting authority is required in most states, which means an agent who made gifts under a general power exceeded their authority regardless of the principal's likely wishes, and self-gifting requires even more specific authorization. That rule makes transaction review straightforward where the instrument lacks gifting language. Statutory accounting obligations also give successors and interested parties a direct route to records.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Does a general power authorize gifting?
What route exists to records?
