2023 Vermont Statutes › Title 14 - Decedents' Estates and Fiduciary Relations › Chapter 127 - Vermont Uniform Power of Attorney Act › § 4002. Definitions

§ 4002. Definitions
As used in this chapter:
(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 or unavailability.
(3) “Electronic” means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.
(4) “Electronic signature” means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.
(5) “General power of attorney” means a power of attorney that is not limited by its terms to a specified transaction or series of transactions, to a specific purpose, or to a specific asset or set of assets, or a power of attorney that grants an agent the authority to do any one or more of the acts described in subsection 4031(e) of this title.
(6) “Good faith” means honesty in fact.
(7)(A) “Incapacity” means the inability of an individual to manage property or business affairs because the individual has an impairment in the ability to receive and evaluate information or make or communicate decisions even with the use of technological assistance.
(B) “Unavailability” means the inability of an individual to manage property or business affairs because the individual is:
(i) missing;
(ii) detained, including incarcerated in a penal system; or
(iii) outside the United States and unable to return.
(8) “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.
(9) “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.
(10) “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.
(11) “Principal” means an individual who grants authority to an agent in a power of attorney.
(12) “Property” means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, or legal or equitable, or any interest or right therein.
(13) “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.
(14) “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.
(15) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
(16) “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. (Added 2023, No. 60, § 1, eff. July 1, 2023.)