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"I have a client who has a valid Illinois POA for property," Kurt Dittmer of La Harpe said in a recent post to the ISBA general discussion group. "The client has some property in Florida and needs to have the agent (his wife) execute some documents. The Florida attorney told me that Florida requires two witnesses and a notary and has requested I re-execute with another witness." [An Illinois POA for property requires only one witness.] [S]houldn't the valid Illinois POA be good enough? If not, how could we anticipate where the POA may be used...to comply with that state's rules?"

Eric Hasselberg of Peoria answered by saying, "[This is why I have been using two witnesses and a notary on all POAs for more than 30 years. It avoids the conflict-of-law situation where another state requires more than Illinois."

Sherwin Abrams of Chicago agreed. "When I know that a client has property in another state or spends a good deal of time there, I make sure that POAs comply with the laws of Illinois and those other states." But as for Florida law, Abrams said, "tell the lawyer there to read his/her state's statute [709.2106, Validity of power of attorney….]," which says [quoting the statute] "a power of attorney executed in another state which does not comply with the execution requirements of this part is valid in this state if, when the power of attorney was executed, the power of attorney and its execution complied with the law of the state of execution…."