Make your Free
South Carolina Power of Attorney

Creating a South Carolina Power of Attorney is an excellent way to ensure that a trusted friend or family member is put in charge of making decisions on your behalf. You can use a Power of Attorney to authorize a friend to sell your guitar collection while you're in the middle of moving to another state. You can also use a Power of Attorney to name your sister as the person who handles your finances if you are going into surgery or in case you are ever unable to make decisions for yourself for any reason.

As the Principal, you can decide when you'd like the decision-making authority to begin. The options range from immediate authority to beginning on a specified date, or at any time when you become incapacitated. The powers granted, whether limited or broad, can end either upon a specified date, or automatically upon your death.

A Power of Attorney in South Carolina is a document that authorizes a named person (the Agent) to engage in transactions on behalf of the person creating the Power of Attorney (the Principal). The powers granted can be broad or specific. South Carolina law requires explicit permission to:

• Create, amend, revoke, or terminate a trust
• Make a gift
• Create or change rights of survivorship
• Create or change a beneficiary designation
• Delegate authority granted under the Power of Attorney
• Waive the Principal's right to be a beneficiary of a joint and survivor annuity, including a survivor benefit under a retirement plan
• Exercise fiduciary powers that the Principal has authority to delegate
• Disclaim property, including a power of appointment
• Access a safe deposit box or vault leased by the Principal
• Exercise a power of appointment in favor of someone other than the Principal
• Reject, renounce, disclaim, release, or consent to a reduction in or modification of a share in or payment from an estate, trust, or other beneficial interest
• Deal with commodity futures contracts and call or put options on stocks or stock indexes

If you do not have a Power of Attorney in place that explicitly mentions any of the above categories, then your Agent will not be able to engage in any of the transactions not mentioned.

You may use the free Rocket Lawyer South Carolina Power of Attorney document if:

• You wish to give someone broad authorization to act on your behalf if you are absent or incapacitated.
• You wish to give someone power to handle certain financial or legal issues in your absence or if you become ill.
• You wish to authorize someone to act on your behalf in case you become legally incompetent or incapacitated.

South Carolina state law does not require a Power of Attorney to be recorded, but it does specify that it needs to be notarized. A Power of Attorney may need to be officially recorded, however, if it is intended to be used for a specific special purpose, such as a real estate transaction. You may want to ask a lawyer about specialized requirements for recording a Power of Attorney in South Carolina.

Yes, South Carolina requires that Powers of Attorney are witnessed and notarized. A Power of Attorney that was executed in another state is recognized as lawful under South Carolina law if it complied with the laws for legitimacy in that state, or the requirements of military power of law have been satisfied.

There are several different options for Power of Attorney. A Power of Attorney can be designated as "general," granting the agent broad discretion to make decisions regarding your health, legal, financial and other personal matters. It can also be "special," or limited to specific matters such as healthcare only. Depending on what need you are trying to meet, a Living Will may be another document you'd want to consider preparing.