POA activation shouldn’t run on a spreadsheet.
Steward gives estate planning firms a client-first workspace to track authority submissions, manage rejections, and record acceptance for each institution in each matter.
Dashboard
3 matters · 1 needs attention
Client
Tasks
2 overdue
3 open
Upcoming
Fidelity · tomorrow
+4 items
Institutions
1 rejected
4 total
Documents
POA · certified copy
6 files
Activity
Submission logged
2h ago
Contacts
Dr. Chen · care mgr
3 contacts
The problem
POA activation at financial institutions is operationally invisible in most firms.
It runs on spreadsheets, email threads, and staff memory. When something goes wrong (a rejection, a stale submission, a missed follow-up), the breakdown is hard to catch until the client calls. Most firms haven’t had a better option for tracking this process.
Submissions tracked in a shared spreadsheet, or not at all
Every submission logged to the matter, with status, date, and outcome
Rejection reasons live in the paralegal's memory
Rejection recorded, reason documented, resubmission tracked
Follow-up timing managed by calendar reminders that get missed
Follow-up signals surface in the dashboard automatically
Institutional knowledge walks out the door when staff turns over
The full record stays in the matter, visible to the whole team
How it works
A client cockpit for every matter — and a full audit trail beneath it.
01 / Dashboard
One cockpit per client. Pick one and the page becomes their workspace.
Select a client from the controller and the dashboard becomes their control center — Tasks, Upcoming, Institutions, Documents, Activity, and Contacts in a compact grid. Quick actions and the institution lookup stay on the right rail. With no client selected, the attention queue surfaces the matters that need work across the whole firm.
Dashboard
3 matters · 1 needs attention
Client
Tasks
2 overdue
3 open
Upcoming
Fidelity · tomorrow
+4 items
Institutions
1 rejected
4 total
Documents
POA · certified copy
6 files
Activity
Submission logged
2h ago
Contacts
Dr. Chen · care mgr
3 contacts
Robert Morrison · re: Eleanor Morrison
Fidelity Investments
Next: resubmit with notarization
Rejection on Oct 14 cited notarization missing. Use Chase cover sheet.
Contact Log
2 recentSpoke with Maria — confirmed fax, follow up Oct 25
Received rejection notice, forwarded to attorney
Submissions
02 / Institution workspace
Track each institution from first submission through acceptance.
A dedicated surface per institution with a Next Action prompt, a contact log for every call and email, the full submission history, and rejection details. Every attempt is timestamped and attributed, so anyone on the team can pick up where the last person left off.
03 / Knowledge base
Know what each institution requires before you submit.
Steward ships with a reference database covering acceptance requirements, POA contact information, and hard-stop institutions (SSA, IRS, VA). The entries are attorney-reviewed. Your team doesn’t have to rebuild this from memory each time a new matter comes in.
Institution Knowledge Base
JPMorgan Chase Bank
New York · Retail Banking
POA Contact
Estate Services · (800) 935-9935
Acceptance note
Requires notarization. Use Chase-specific cover sheet. Allow 10-15 business days.
Fidelity Investments
Trust Operations · Boston, MA
Social Security Administration
Federal agency
Why Steward
Built for law firms that handle POA activation.
Matter-organized, not spreadsheet-organized
Every submission, document, task, and outreach record is filed to the matter. Nothing gets lost in a shared inbox or a spreadsheet column.
Full submission history from first attempt to acceptance
The complete record of every institution engagement is available to any team member. No asking who handled it, no digging through email to reconstruct what happened.
A client cockpit, and a firm-wide attention queue
Pick any client and the dashboard becomes their control center — tasks, upcoming, institutions, documents, activity. With nothing selected, the attention queue surfaces rejections, stale submissions, and overdue tasks across every matter.
Institution knowledge built in
Acceptance requirements, POA contact information, and hard-stop institutions are documented and searchable, not buried in staff notes.
Document vault tied to the matter
Authority documents, POA forms, and supporting records are attached to the matter and downloadable by the team. No separate document system to manage.
A complete audit trail per matter
Every action logged: who did what, when, on which matter. Useful day-to-day, and a clean record if a client or institution ever disputes the timeline.
Who it’s for
For estate planning and elder law firms that manage POA activation regularly.
- You manage POA activation across multiple active matters at a time.
- You’ve had submissions rejected and struggled to track the resubmission.
- Your team’s institutional knowledge lives in a spreadsheet or someone’s memory.
- You want a clear audit trail of every action taken on a matter.
- You practice in New York. Acceptance evidence and citation-backed legal guidance is built in for NY jurisdiction.
For the attorney
Pick a client and see their whole picture — tasks, upcoming commitments, institution status, recent activity. Or check the attention queue to see what needs work across every matter. Check in without chasing down the paralegal.
For the paralegal or legal assistant
Submission status, rejection tracking, follow-up logging, document access. All tied to the matter. The same work you’re already doing, tracked properly.
FAQ
Common questions.
We already have a practice management system. Why do we need Steward?
Steward is not a practice management system. It handles POA activation at financial institutions, which most PMS tools don't model well. They don't track submission status, rejections, follow-up signals, or institution-specific requirements. Steward does. The two can coexist.
Is this only for New York firms?
The core workflow (matters, institutions, submissions, tasks, documents, audit trail) works in any jurisdiction. The acceptance evidence and citation database is currently built for New York. Outside NY, you get the full workflow tracking; the legal guidance is a bonus if you practice there.
Is this AI? Does it automate anything?
No. Steward is a workflow tracking tool. There's a draft generation feature for outreach communications, but the core product is logging, tracking, and documenting submissions. Nothing runs automatically. Your team takes every action.
Can multiple people on the team use it?
Yes. Steward is designed for firm teams. The dashboard and matter workspaces are shared across the firm. The audit trail records which user performed each action.
Our volume may not justify dedicated software.
If you're handling more than a few active POA matters, the tracking overhead adds up. A submission falls through, a rejection goes unaddressed, a paralegal leaves and takes the institutional context with them. Sorting that out costs more than the tool does.
How does data security and client confidentiality work?
Each firm's data is isolated. Nothing is shared across firms. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. We'll go through the security details during the walkthrough.
If managing POA submissions is costing your firm more time than it should, Steward was built for it.
30-minute walkthrough for estate planning and elder law firms. We’ll show you the product against your firm’s actual workflow.