More on the Recent Power of Attorney Changes in New York.

As reported in prior entries on this blog, corporate, real estate, and estate planning attorneys in New York are concerned about the ramifications of the new Power of Attorney laws. The New York Law Journal published a recent article discussing the possible pitfalls to parties in New York. [Article— Joel Stashenko 01-22-2010].

The problems include well-established areas of commercial transactions, because they should not apply to the creation of valid proxies for the voting of shares of stock held by investors of New York corporations and non-New York corporations.

Practically speaking, the new form are very unwieldy because they require notarization of signatures by an agent being designated as having power of attorney.

51 large New York Law firms also argue that the new forms should not apply to registration of transfer of a certificated security issued by a non-New York issuer and with the formation of non-New York limited liability companies. New York Uniform Commercial Code §8-110.

Bottom Line– Don’t just go print a form from the Internet and think you are doing the right thing. Pay an attorney to prepare it for you– even if it costs some money, find a reasonable firm and forge a bond with that attorney.