2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 15 - PROBATE, TRUSTS, AND FIDUCIARIES (§§ 15-1-101 — 15-24-403) › COLORADO PROBATE CODE (§§ 15-10-101 — 15-17-103) › Article 14 - PERSONS UNDER DISABILITY - PROTECTION (§§ 15-14-101 — 15-14-806) › Part 7 - UNIFORM POWER OF ATTORNEY ACT (§§ 15-14-701 — 15-14-745) › Subpart 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 15-14-701 — 15-14-723) › Section 15-14-702 - Definitions

Except as otherwise provided under this part 7, and except as the context may otherwise require, in this part 7:
(1)
"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. The term includes an original agent, coagent, successor agent, and a person to which an agent's authority is delegated.
(2)
"Durable", with respect to a power of attorney, means not terminated by the principal's incapacity.
(3)
"Electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.
(4)
"Good faith" means honesty in fact.
(5)
"Incapacity" means inability of an individual to manage property or business affairs because the individual:
(a)
Has an impairment in the ability to receive and evaluate information or make or communicate decisions even with the use of technological assistance; or
(b)
Is:
(I)
Missing;
(II)
Detained, including incarcerated in a penal system; or
(III)
Outside the United States and unable to return.
(6)
"Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity.
(7)
"Power of attorney" means a writing or other record that grants authority to an agent to act in the place of the principal, whether or not the term power of attorney is used.
(8)
"Presently exercisable general power of appointment", with respect to property or a property interest subject to a power of appointment, means power exercisable at the time in question to vest absolute ownership in the principal individually, the principal's estate, the principal's creditors, or the creditors of the principal's estate. The term includes a power of appointment not exercisable until the occurrence of a specified event, the satisfaction of an ascertainable standard, or the passage of a specified period only after the occurrence of the specified event, the satisfaction of the ascertainable standard, or the passage of the specified period. The term does not include a power exercisable in a fiduciary capacity or only by will.
(9)
"Principal" means an individual who grants authority to an agent in a power of attorney.
(10)
"Property" means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, or legal or equitable, or any interest or right therein.
(11)
"Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
(12)
"Sign" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:
(a)
To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or
(b)
To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic sound, symbol, or process.
(13)
"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.
(14)
"Stocks and bonds" means stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and all other types of securities and financial instruments, whether held directly, indirectly, or in any other manner. The term does not include commodity futures contracts and call or put options on stocks or stock indexes.
L. 2009: Entire part added, (HB 09-1198), ch. 106, p. 384, §1, effective April 9. L. 2011: IP amended, (SB 11-083), ch. 101, p. 310, §20, effective August 10.
OFFICIAL COMMENT
Although most of the definitions in Section 15-14-702 are self-explanatory, a few of the terms warrant further comment.
"Agent" replaces the term "attorney in fact" used in the Uniform Durable Power of Attorney Act to avoid confusion in the lay public about the meaning of the term and the difference between an attorney in fact and an attorney at law. Agent was also used in the Uniform Statutory Form Power of Attorney Act which this Act supersedes.
"Incapacity" replaces the term "disability" used in the Uniform Durable Power of Attorney Act in recognition that disability does not necessarily render an individual incapable of property and business management. The definition of incapacity stresses the operative consequences of the individual's impairment inability to manage property and business affairs rather than the impairment itself. The definition of incapacity in the Act is also consistent with the standard for appointment of a conservator under Section 401 of the Uniform Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Act as amended in 1997.
The definition of "power of attorney" clarifies that the term applies to any grant of authority in a writing or other record from a principal to an agent which appears from the grant to be a power of attorney, without regard to whether the words "power of attorney" are actually used in the grant.
"Presently exercisable general power of appointment" is defined to clarify that where the phrase appears in the Act it does not include a power exercisable by the principal in a fiduciary capacity or exercisable only by will.
Cf.
Restatement (Third) of Property (Wills and Don. Trans.) § 19.8 cmt. d (Tentative Draft No. 5, approved 2006) (noting that unless the donor of a presently exercisable power of attorney has manifested a contrary intent, it is assumed that the donor intends that the donee's agent be permitted to exercise the power for the benefit of the donee). Including in a power of attorney the authority to exercise a presently exercisable general power of appointment held by the principal is consistent with the objective of giving an agent comprehensive management authority over the principal's property and financial affairs. The term appears in Section
15-14-734
(Estates, Trusts, and Other Beneficial Interests) in the context of authority to exercise for the benefit of the principal a presently exercisable general power of appointment held by the principal (see Section
15-14-734(2)(c)
) , and in Section
15-14-740
(Gifts) in the context of authority to exercise for the benefit of someone else a presently exercisable general power of appointment held by the principal (see Section
15-14-740(b)(1)
) . The term is also incorporated by reference when using the statutory form in Section
15-14-741
to grant authority with respect to "Estates, Trusts, and Other Beneficial Interests" or authority with respect to "Gifts." If a principal wishes to delegate authority to exercise a power that the principal holds in a fiduciary capacity, Section
15-14-724(1)(g)
requires that the power of attorney contain an express grant of such authority. Furthermore, delegation of a power held in a fiduciary capacity is possible only if the principal has authority to delegate the power, and the agent's authority is necessarily limited by whatever terms govern the principal's ability to exercise the power.