How to Revoke a Power of Attorney in Wisconsin

When You Can Revoke a Power of Attorney

Your parent can revoke a power of attorney at any time, for any reason, as long as they still have the mental capacity to understand what they're doing. A dementia diagnosis alone doesn't remove this right — what matters is whether they can comprehend at the moment of revocation that they're withdrawing someone's authority to act on their behalf.

Wisconsin treats financial and healthcare powers of attorney as separate instruments under different statutes, and each has its own revocation rules.

Revoking a Financial Power of Attorney (Chapter 244)

Under Wis. Stat. § 244.10, a principal revokes a financial power of attorney by executing a written revocation, signing and dating the document, and delivering notice to the agent. The revocation should be notarized for the same reason the original POA was — it gives financial institutions confidence that the revocation is genuine.

Here's the sequence:

1. Draft a written revocation stating the principal's full legal name, the date the original POA was executed, the name of the agent being removed, and a clear statement that all authority granted under the document is revoked.
2. Have the principal sign and date it in front of a notary public.
3. Deliver copies to every institution that received the original POA — banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, the county Register in Probate if the POA was ever filed with the court.
4. Send a copy to the former agent via certified mail so you have proof of delivery.

The revocation is effective immediately once the principal signs it, but as a practical matter, third parties will continue honoring the old POA until they receive written notice. A bank that processes a transaction based on a POA it didn't know was revoked is generally protected from liability, so prompt notification matters.

There's also an automatic revocation rule: if the principal named their spouse as the financial agent, that designation is automatically revoked the moment either party files for divorce, annulment, or legal separation.

Revoking a Healthcare Power of Attorney (Chapter 155)

Healthcare POA revocation under Chapter 155 is more flexible. Wisconsin law provides four independent methods — any one of them is sufficient:

• Execute a new healthcare POA. The new document automatically supersedes and revokes all prior healthcare POAs.
• Sign and date a written statement of revocation.
• Physically destroy all copies of the document.
• Verbally declare the revocation in the presence of two witnesses.

The verbal method is important for situations where a parent is hospitalized and physically unable to sign a written document but is still capable of expressing their wishes. The two witnesses who hear the verbal revocation should not be the same people who witnessed the original POA, and they should document what was said, when, and who was present.

Once the healthcare POA is revoked, notify the parent's physicians, the hospital, and any care facility that had the document on file. Until they receive notice, they may continue recognizing the former agent's authority.

What Revocation Cannot Do

Revocation only works prospectively — it cancels the agent's future authority. It does not undo transactions the agent already completed while the POA was in force. If your parent's agent made financial decisions you believe were improper, that's a separate legal matter involving breach of fiduciary duty, not a revocation issue.

Revocation also requires capacity. If your parent has already lost the ability to understand what revoking means, they cannot revoke the POA themselves. In that situation, the only path to removing an agent who is acting against the principal's interests is petitioning the circuit court under Chapter 54 for a guardianship, which gives the court authority to supersede the existing POA.

Protecting the Revocation

After revocation, keep the signed and notarized revocation document in a safe place — ideally alongside the original POA, which should be marked "REVOKED" across its face in permanent ink. This prevents confusion if someone later discovers an unmarked copy of the old document in a filing cabinet or safety deposit box.

The Wisconsin Power of Attorney & Guardianship Kit includes revocation templates and notification checklists for both financial and healthcare POAs, along with the full document execution workflow from start to finish.

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