Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: Connecticut requires the document to be dated, signed, and witnessed by two witnesses. Notarisation is not required for validity — it creates a presumption that the signature is genuine. Connecticut powers of attorney are durable by default.
The execution box
- Dated. Stated expressly in the statute, which is unusual enough to be worth checking on any form you are handed.
- Signature: by the principal, or in the principal’s conscious physical presence by another individual the principal directs.
- Witnesses: two, required.
- Notary: not required for validity — it makes the signature presumed genuine. A commissioner of the Superior Court may take the acknowledgement instead.
- Durability: durable by default.
What the statute says
A power of attorney must be dated and signed by the principal or in the principal’s conscious physical presence by another individual directed by the principal to sign the principal’s name on the power of attorney and witnessed by two witnesses. A signature on a power of attorney is presumed to be genuine if the principal acknowledges the signature before a notary public, a commissioner of the Superior Court or other individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments.
— C.G.S. §1-350d
Three details repay attention.
“Dated” is a requirement, not a formality. The statute lists it first. An undated instrument does not comply on the face of the section.
“Conscious physical presence.” Connecticut adds a word that some states omit. Where another individual signs for the principal, being on a video call is not obviously enough — the statute asks for physical presence, consciously.
A commissioner of the Superior Court is an alternative to a notary. In Connecticut, attorneys admitted in the state are commissioners of the Superior Court, so the acknowledgement can be taken by the lawyer already in the room. That is a genuinely useful local fact and it appears in very few summaries.
The notary is evidentiary, not constitutive
Read the second sentence again: a signature “is presumed to be genuine if” acknowledged. That is a rule about proof, not about validity. Many write-ups say “Connecticut requires notarisation” — the section does not say that. It requires two witnesses, which is the part people skip.
Notarise anyway. A bank that refuses an unnotarised instrument is not persuaded by the distinction, and the presumption exists precisely to end that conversation.
When a bank refuses a power of attorney
Durable by default
A power of attorney created under sections 1-350 to 1-353b, inclusive, is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity of the principal.
— C.G.S. §1-350c
You do not need magic words to make it survive incapacity. You need them to make it not survive. That is the reverse of several states, and a form drafted for a must-say-durable jurisdiction still works here.
Connecticut against Colorado — same statute family, different answer
Both states adopted the same uniform act, both are durable by default, and both treat the notary as evidentiary. They differ on the thing that actually voids documents:
- Connecticut requires two witnesses.
- Colorado requires none.
A Colorado-drafted power of attorney signed without witnesses is fine in Colorado and defective in Connecticut. Shared statutory ancestry is not a reason to assume shared requirements.
This is the financial instrument, not the medical one
It handles property and money, not treatment decisions. Those are a separate document with separate rules.
What could not be verified
We have quoted sections 1-350c and 1-350d. We have not verified whether Connecticut publishes a free official statutory form, so that field is left blank rather than guessed. Agent duties, third-party acceptance and the long-form statutory power in the same chapter are not covered here.
Related: power of attorney requirements by state.
General information drawn from state statutes and official state or court forms, not legal advice. These instruments are governed by the law of the state where the property sits or the document is signed, and formalities differ from state to state — execution, witnessing and recording requirements are the parts that void a document when they are missed. Your own state’s current statute governs.