Ted is a writer of children's books and young adult novels. For the past four years, Ted has been represented by Bernie. Bernie is a literary agent who specializes in genre fiction, particularly fantasy and science fiction novels. Nevertheless, Bernie is well known among publishing circles, and most of Bernie's contacts are aware that he represents Ted. Ted has enjoyed moderate success as an author under Bernie's representation. Lately, however, Ted has begun to wonder if his career would be better served if he were represented by an agent who specializes in children and young adult books. Ted has just completed a new series of dystopian adventure novels for young adults involving time travel, the Founding Fathers, and a talking Bald Eagle named Ronald. Ted believes that the market is ripe for the series, and he has decided that the time to move to a new agent is now. Ted sends Bernie an email thanking him for all his help and letting him know that the relationship has come to an end. Bernie received Ted's email and was heartbroken. Bernie could not bring himself to respond to the email. Instead, Bernie spent the weekend coming up with ways to convince Ted to continue the relationship. At last, Bernie had an idea. Bernie made calls to every major publisher that he knew to pitch some of Ted's projects. Goldman Publishing, a children's book publisher who was familiar with Ted's work, was thrilled with the presentation and wanted to sign Ted immediately. Bernie negotiated a set of favorable terms and signed on Ted's behalf. By the next week, Ted had given up hope of receiving a response from Bernie. Ted sent a very polite email to all of his publishing contacts informing them that Bernie was no longer his agent. The next day, Bernie presented Ted's dystopian novel series to the hottest young adult publishing house, Skinny Pants Press. Skinny Pants was very interested in signing onto the project, but was concerned about whether Bernie was authorized to enter into an agreement on Ted's behalf after receiving Ted's email. The editor decided not to ask Bernie about the email, because she didn't want to miss out on signing the series. After several hours of negotiation, Bernie signed a lucrative contract on Ted's behalf for the series. When Ted learned about the deal Bernie had entered with Goldman, he was unhappy because he wanted to focus on his young adult novels. Ted's concerns were soon forgotten when Bernie presented him with the Skinny Pants deal. Ted immediately sent out a newsletter to all his fans letting them know about his new three-book deal.

When did Bernie's actual authority terminate?