Skip to content

Proper Endorsement of POA

Question: 
What is the proper way a customer that is POA (a known customer that we have supporting documents of POA) of another endorse a U.S. Treasury Check, or would the payee have to reflect that there is a POA?
Answer: 

You'll find the details in the Treasury's regulations at 31 CFR Part 240. You'll need to know whether the type of payment requires special language in the POA, and whether that special language is there. Generally, if the check is for SSA, SSI, or other benefits that cease on death, special wording is needed in the POA. If the POA is valid for the type of payment, the endorsement should read:

Pay E. Beneficiary
by /s/ Iam N. Agent
Attorney in Fact for
Pay E. Beneficiary

Be sure the AIF actually includes his/her signature, and indicates that he/she is an attorney in fact. Mary Beth Guard and I presented a webinar on Avoiding Losses on Treasury Checks that goes into a fair amount of detail on when and how powers of attorney can be used in negotating these checks. Check it out.

First published on BankersOnline.com 6/26/06

First published on 06/26/2006

Filed under: 
Filed under operations as: 

Search Topics