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Lasting powers of attorney and care directives; application for certification

You can have your signature or a hand mark on a health care proxy or care directive officially notarized.

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Procedure details

The public certification of your power of attorney or care directive confirms that the signature on the document is yours. Public certification of a power of attorney for health care means that future contractual partners can rely on the fact that you have issued the power of attorney.

For certain legal transactions, public certification of a power of attorney is even mandatory. Certification of the signature under the power of attorney is necessary if the authorized representative is to be entitled to acquire real estate, encumber it or have existing encumbrances deleted and to sell real estate. This also applies to disposals by an authorized representative of company shares of the principal that are subject to commercial register registration.

You can have your signature under a health care proxy or care directive publicly notarized by the care authority (district office or city). In addition, any notary public can also notarize your signature. Public certification of a signature by a notary at a care authority is equivalent to notarization in the case of powers of attorney.
This does not apply if the power of attorney is granted after the death of the principal.

is granted beyond the death of the principal. While a notarized power of attorney continues to have effect even after the death of the principal, the effect of a power of attorney notarized by the guardianship authority ends with the death of the principal. If death occurs, the power of attorney can only be used for declarations that do not require a notarized power of attorney due to the limited effect of the official certification for the lifetime of the principal.

The following applies to the public certification of a signature by a notary of a guardianship authority:

  • The principal must be of legal age and have legal capacity.
  • The personal presence of the principal is required.
  • Only signatures or hand signs of natural persons are notarized.
  • Notarization of signatures or hand signs without the corresponding text is not permitted.
  • Notarization is not permitted if the guardianship authority is responsible for representing a party in the matter in question.

  • No further documents are required.
    • Care directive or power of attorney in the original
    • Valid identification documents

If you would like to have your precautionary document publicly notarized by a care authority, you must first apply for public notarization at the care authority responsible for your place of residence (district office or independent city).

  • A personal visit to the care authority is required. It is recommended that you make an appointment in advance.
  • You must bring the original care directive or health care proxy and valid identification documents with you to the appointment.

The care directive or health care proxy can be signed in advance or in the presence of the notary.

A fee of 10 euros is charged for each certification at a guardianship authority.
The fee may be waived in individual cases.

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Public notarization is carried out immediately.

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Status: 10.11.2025
Editorially responsible for prodecure description: Bayerisches Staatsministerium der Justiz
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