Future powers of attorney

In a future power of attorney you can decide who will take care of you and your personal and financial interests if you should come into a situation as mentioned above. With a future power of attorney, you have the opportunity to regulate a so-called “private guardianship” specifically adapted to you - a guardianship that is more flexible than the County Governor (the guardianship authorities) is able to exercise. Many people think they’re taken care of when they’ve made a will, but a will only applies from the day you die.

The County Governor finds that many people draw up a future power of attorney too late as when they set it up, they are already in a situation where they can no longer protect their own interests as mentioned. It is therefore important for everyone, young and old, to create a future power of attorney while you can. You can withdraw the future power of attorney at any time if it has not come into effect.

If you don’t have a future power of attorney, the County Governor will appoint a guardian who will make decisions for you. However, the guardian has little flexibility and there are strict rules for carrying out the guardianship. In the event of big and important decisions, the guardian must also obtain approval from the County Governor, which may take time. According to the rules, financial assets, for example, must be placed in a bank account. We find that service and management agreements are being terminated and the assets are being transferred to a bank account. If capital is released when selling property or a business that you own, this capital must also be placed in a bank account.

If you own an investment company/holding company, the County Governor will also exercise all your ownership rights and voting rights in the company on your behalf. Furthermore, we see that the distribution of inheritance advances and the implementation of a generational change is normally difficult to get through.

In partnership with the law firm Hjort, via Ida Westvang, the DNB Private Banking lawyers have prepared an example of a future power of attorney that you as a customer can access. The future power of attorney is in place, but it indicates examples of types of dispositions that we are experiencing that more people want to allow the authorisation to include both in the personal and economic area. Even if you have a high level of confidence in the person(s) you give authorisation too, we see that many people want to specify in more detail some types of tasks and decisions they want the executor of the will to perform. You and your family may have special personal or financial needs that should be specified and we recommend that you get help from a lawyer to adapt the authorisation to your needs.

See example of future power of attorney - PDF (Norwegian)

Unfortunately, in some browsers, there may be problems opening the word document. Contact your Private Banking adviser and you will be sent the future power of attorney in Word.

The most important thing is that you choose someone you trust and who has the competence to perform the assignment. We see that many people appoint a spouse/cohabitant, children or close friends as a power of attorney. If you have complex assets or specific requirements, you should take this into account when choosing a power of attorney. We always recommend that you appoint one or two subsidiary powers of attorney, preferably someone younger, so that you are secured if something should happen to the primary power of attorney. Many people find it difficult to choose one of the children and want them to do this together, which is not always practical for banks and other institutions. Therefore, make sure they can give each other a general or special authorisation

It is important that the power of attorney be witnessed by two witnesses in order for it to be valid and it is important that the witnesses are independent and not closely associated with the power(s) of attorney you appoint. If you create a power of attorney after you have become ill, weakened or very old, we recommend that you obtain a declaration from your doctor that you are competent to give consent when you grant such a power of attorney, as this will avoid any doubt about whether the power of attorney is valid later on.

There is no register for storing powers of attorney yet, so please keep the original.

Our template states that the power of attorney shall not be effective until the power of attorney has obtained a doctor’s certificate confirming that you can no longer look after yourself, but this is not a condition for entry into force.

The power of attorney may ask the County Governor to confirm the authorisation, so that it is evidently easier to act vis-à-vis third parties such as banks etc. but this is not a condition for validity under the law.