Take Your Powers Back

A power of attorney is essential if you’re doing business in Brazil while living in the United States. With a power of attorney, you can give someone you trust the authority to act for you if you can’t physically be present to sign.

Starting a company? You’ll need to give a power of attorney to your legal representative. Buying a house? You might want your lawyer to sign the deed for you.

But what happens when you don’t need that person anymore? Do you really want them to have the power to continue acting on your behalf? Probably not. They don’t need the figurative keys to the castle anymore.

The easiest way to avoid a problem is to include an expiration date in the power of attorney. For example, you could say that the power of attorney expires a year from the signature date. You could even say that it expires upon the conclusion of a specific act, like the purchase of a property.

If there’s no expiration date or you need to terminate the power of attorney before it expires, you’ll need to revoke it. You can read more about how to revoke a power of attorney in Brazil HERE.

Keeping track of any power of attorney you sign is critical. You should know who has it, what powers they have and for how long they can act on your behalf. To minimize your legal risk, use powers of attorney when necessary, but terminate the ones you no longer need.