Extract data from powers of attorney

A power of attorney hands one person the legal authority to act for another, and the document that grants it has to be precise about who, what, and for how long. The principal is the person granting authority; the agent, also called the attorney-in-fact, is the one authorized to act. A US bank onboarding a customer's agent, a title company closing a sale where the seller signs by proxy, and an estate planner filing for a client all read the same fields: the principal and agent names and addresses, the type of power granted, the specific authorities, the effective and expiration dates, and the notarization block that makes the instrument valid. The distinctions that decide whether the document works are subtle. A durable power of attorney survives the principal's incapacity while a non-durable one does not, and a springing power takes effect only when a stated condition, usually the principal's incapacity, occurs. Powers granted range from broad financial authority down to a single act such as selling one property, and a restriction clause can carve out what the agent may not do, for example gifting above the IRS annual gift-tax exclusion. Because no single national form exists, an instrument executed under the Uniform Power of Attorney Act in one state reads differently from a statutory short form in another, and the witness and notary requirements shift with the jurisdiction. Talonic reads the instrument and returns the principal and agent, the classification of the power, the enumerated authorities, the durability and springing flags, and the notary block as structured fields. A durable financial power of attorney executed 2026-05-04 in Cook County, naming Margaret Ellison as principal and her son David Ellison as agent, with Clara Ellison named successor agent and Susan Marsh notarizing the same day, loads into a matter file by 2026-05-06 with its powers and restrictions intact, so a paralegal confirms the authority from data rather than paging through the signed original.

What gets extracted from powers of attorney

How extraction works for powers of attorney

Powers of attorney arrive as statutory short forms, attorney-drafted PDFs, and notarized scans read with OCR, and because no authoritative national standard fixes the layout, the same authority can be worded a dozen ways. Talonic classifies the document and maps it to the legal-instrument schema in the Field Registry, which separates the principal and agent identities from the powers granted and the conditions that govern them. The durable and springing flags are read from the operative language rather than assumed, since they decide when the authority is live. Enumerated powers are captured as a list with their categories, restrictions are kept as their own field, and the successor agent is recorded so a gap in authority is visible. Dates parse to ISO 8601, and the notary name, seal date, and license number are captured to establish validity. Provenance for every field follows DIN SPEC 91491, pairing a confidence score with a pixel region, so a reviewer verifies the granted authority against the source instrument before an agent acts on it.

Sample extraction

A notarized durable financial power of attorney

{
  "document_number": "POA-2026-0504",
  "document_date": "2026-05-04",
  "effective_date": "2026-05-04",
  "expiration_date": null,
  "principal": {
    "name": "Margaret Ellison",
    "address": "512 Lakeview Ave, Evanston, IL 60201",
    "identifier": "IL-DL-E4521-8890"
  },
  "agent": {
    "name": "David Ellison",
    "address": "77 Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 60660",
    "relationship": "adult_child"
  },
  "poa_type": "durable_financial",
  "is_durable": true,
  "is_springing": false,
  "powers_granted": [
    {
      "power_description": "Manage bank and brokerage accounts",
      "category": "financial",
      "limitations": "none"
    },
    {
      "power_description": "Buy, sell, and manage real property",
      "category": "property",
      "limitations": "primary residence requires principal consent"
    },
    {
      "power_description": "File and sign tax returns",
      "category": "legal",
      "limitations": "none"
    }
  ],
  "successor_agent": {
    "name": "Clara Ellison",
    "relationship": "adult_child",
    "address": "90 Elm St, Madison, WI 53703"
  },
  "restrictions_limitations": "Agent may not make gifts exceeding the annual federal gift-tax exclusion",
  "governing_law": "State of Illinois",
  "witness_names": [
    "Thomas Reed",
    "Anita Powell"
  ],
  "notary_info": {
    "name": "Susan Marsh",
    "seal_date": "2026-05-04",
    "license_number": "IL-NP-772140"
  },
  "revocation_clause": "Revocable in writing by the principal at any time"
}

Frequently asked