King & Wood, P.A.

Estate Planning Helps Build Generational Wealth

“Across personal finance topics, estate planning is probably one of the least understood—while being one of the most anxiety-inducing.”

Estate planning isn’t just for wealthy people, and it’s not just about distributing assets upon death. Estate planning also protects you while you’re living and helps grow and protect wealth from one generation to the next. A recent article from GO Banking Rates, “4 Estate Planning Myths That Could Be Stopping You from Building Generational Wealth,” explains the top reasons people fail to make the most out of estate planning.

Myth 1: The biggest myth is that only rich people have estates. Everyone has an estate. An estate is the legal term used to describe all your tangible (and intangible) possessions, including homes, bank accounts, cars, or investment accounts. If you rent your home, the possessions in the home are part of your estate, as are any other assets you own.

Your will is used to direct the distribution of assets upon your death. However, an estate plan serves more purposes. They include documenting your wishes for healthcare, allowing someone else to speak for you if you’re too sick to do so, naming a guardian for minor children and an executor to oversee your estate after death. These things are all addressed by your estate plan.

If you aren’t sure what is in your estate, start by creating an inventory of all your assets, including financial, digital and physical property. If you have minor children, the next step is to decide who you would want to raise your children if something were to happen to you.

Everyone should have a healthcare proxy so another person can step in and make medical decisions on their behalf if they can’t. This is admittedly unpleasant to think about. However, it will save your loved ones from having to make decisions for you in a health crisis. Without clear medical directives, your family members could be embroiled in a battle over what you would have wanted or spend the rest of their own lives regretting decisions made about your care.

Myth 2: Estate planning is easy. It’s fair to say an estate plan for a simple situation is less complicated than an estate plan for someone who owns a business, has children from multiple marriages and owns homes in different states. Oversimplifying an estate plan by trying to do it yourself could lead to the wrong people inheriting your property or a massive tax debt for heirs.

Myth 3: Estate planning is a one-time task. Estate plans are like owning a home—you’re never done maintaining and caring for a home, and the same goes for an estate plan. Life changes, people marry, divorce, children are born and people move. All these things call for a review of an estate plan. Laws also change. An estate plan created in 2015 is long outdated, potentially leaving heirs with a smaller inheritance and a larger tax burden.

Myth 4: Estate planning is just for people who are going to retire or who are very old. Parents with minor children who don’t have an estate plan leave their children’s fate to a court. Your will also names a guardian of your choice who will raise your children. If there’s no estate plan and a young parent becomes seriously ill, their spouse isn’t allowed to be part of their healthcare decision-making if there’s no Healthcare Proxy in place. Everyone needs an estate plan.

Thinking differently about your estate plan now? Start by making an appointment with a local estate planning attorney. Their experience in creating plans and their knowledge of your state’s laws will give you peace of mind in knowing you’ve done the right thing to help yourself and your family.

Reference: GO Banking Rates (April 4, 2025) “4 Estate Planning Myths That Could Be Stopping You From Building Generational Wealth”

Is Your Estate Plan Ready for a Recession?

“From a gift and estate tax planning perspective, economic downturns offer unique leverage, allowing clients to transfer wealth more efficiently, reduce estate tax exposure and position themselves for significant long-term advantage.”

Volatile markets often cause investors to batten down the hatches and hold onto their wealth, waiting for things to settle down. However, if your goals are long-term, there are estate planning moves to make when times are uncertain. A recent article from Forbes, “Turning Downturns into Opportunity: Recession-Era Strategies for Gift and Estate Tax Planning,” explains the opportunities presented.

Gifts are valued by the IRS at their fair market value when they are transferred. If the market is down, the valuation and the gift tax cost is lower. More wealth may be moved out of an estate, while using less of the lifetime gift and estate tax exemption. The exemption is currently high. However, it may be cut in half if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires at the end of this year. For a wealthy family, now is the time to lock in the higher exemption amount and transfer assets that may appreciate in a recovery.

This could mean gifting marketable securities, closely held business interests, fractional interests in art or collectables, or real estate property. Gifting directly to heirs should be considered. Ask your estate planning attorney if it makes sense to gift to irrevocable trusts right now, and to gift to grantor trusts, which lets you continue paying income taxes on trust earnings, which serves to reduce your taxable estate further.

Another popular strategy in a down market is the Grantor Retained Annuity Trust. This trust lets you “loan” assets to a trust, while receiving annuity payments over time. If the assets grow beyond an IRS rate, the appreciation passes to beneficiaries with no gift tax. Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts are also something to discuss with your estate planning attorney. The IDGT allows you to sell assets to the trust in exchange for a promissory note. This serves to freeze asset value for estate tax purposes and, at the same time, transfers future appreciation out of your estate.

For families with significant assets, depressed values can also prompt the use of intra-family loans. Interest rates are still relatively low, even if they have risen recently. Selling assets or lending funds to a family member or a trust allows the appreciation above the interest rate to accrue to the next generation.

If you have already created and funded an Irrevocable Grantor Trust, you may want to consider asset substitutions. By exchanging low-basis assets held personally for high-basis assets inside the trust, you could reclaim assets benefitting from a step-up at basis at death, at the same time you’d be moving appreciating assets outside of your estate.

These are not do-it-yourself strategies and must consider your estate plan and financial situation. Review them with your estate planning attorney to learn if they are right for you and if there are other strategies to be considered.

Reference: Forbes (April 7, 2025) “Turning Downturns Into Opportunity: Recession-Era Strategies For Gift And Estate Tax Planning”

Smart Estate Planning Protects Family and Wealth

“Estate planning is crucial for protecting family wealth and ensuring financial security.”

It took about a decade for a woman to list her late mother’s home for sale, with long and costly delays created by a disagreement between siblings. In a recent article from Investopedia, “How to Protect Your Family and Wealth with Smart Estate Planning,” she readily admits the ten-year mess could have been avoided if her mother had simply gotten an estate plan done.

The lesson for others? “People: Handle your business, get things in, put things in a proper place so that those who come behind you don’t have to deal with it.”

Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon situation. The number of people with a will has actually declined from 2022 to 2025. Without an estate plan in place, your assets will take a long, drawn-out journey before they reach recipients, and may not go to those of your choosing.

Wills and trusts are key components of an estate plan. The will is a document instructing how you want your assets to be distributed upon death. It is also used to outline custody arrangements for minor children, appoints an executor to oversee the estate and fulfill your final wishes. You may also need a trust, a legal structure to own assets with instructions on your wishes for the assets’ management and distribution. Think of it this way: wills are for asset distribution after you die, and trusts work while you’re living and beyond.

Estate plans include Power of Attorney and Healthcare Directives, which are also legal documents used while you are living. At its simplest, a Power of Attorney names a person to make decisions for you if you become incapacitated. A POA can be simple, or it can be tailored for your situation. For instance, you may want your brother to be able to pay bills but not to make charitable donations. A Healthcare Proxy allows another person to be involved in your medical care.

Beneficiary designations are often overlooked. This can lead to unintended consequences. Every account you own with a beneficiary designation should be reviewed to make sure it reflects your wishes. Accounts with beneficiary designations include investments, retirement and bank accounts. Insurance policies also have beneficiary designations.

Beneficiary designations supersede any language in your will, so you want to be sure they are correct. If you divorce and your ex-spouse is still your beneficiary, they will still receive the asset, no matter what your will or divorce stipulation says.

Trusts are used to pass wealth on to others and for asset protection. There are many different types of trusts. However, they fall into two basic categories: Revocable Trusts and Irrevocable Trusts. The Revocable Trust allows you—the grantor—to have full control of the assets in the trust and make any changes to the trust whenever you wish. The trade-off for the control is the trust is its contents are not protected from creditors or taxes. Properly prepared, revocable trusts become irrevocable after you die. However, if asset protection is the goal, you’ll want an irrevocable trust.

Irrevocable trusts are used to shield assets for many purposes, Medicaid eligibility chief among them. The grantor may not be the trustee or beneficiary. However, the trust is secured against creditors or legal claims. Because assets in an irrevocable trust are not countable for Medicaid purposes, these trusts are used for Medicaid planning.

Your estate planning attorney will help create an estate plan to protect you while you are living, plan for incapacity and ensure that the right people receive your bequests after you have passed. It’s a gift for those you love, sparing them from disagreements created when each thinks they know what you would have wanted.

Reference: Investopedia (April 1, 2025) “How to Protect Your Family and Wealth With Smart Estate Planning”

Why Create a Pet Trust?

“While we often associate dog trust funds with the super-rich, you don’t need to be Oprah to set up a dog trust fund. Anybody with a pet can set one up to help prepare for the future.”

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey has a trust fund for her dogs, as revealed in 2007 by a source to an Australian women’s magazine. How much she left to her beloved animal companions is thought to be in the millions, according to a recent article from Pets Radar, “Oprah’s dogs will inherit a $30 million fortune—here’s why.” However, you don’t need to be a billionaire to want to care for your pets using a pet trust.

A pet trust is a legally binding contract used to specify money to care for a pet in case of incapacity or death of the human owner. The trust is funded to care for the animal’s life and should include specific instructions for how the pet will be cared for. An experienced estate planning attorney can create a pet trust to comply with your state’s laws.

When creating a pet trust, consider how much money will be needed to pay for the pet’s care, considering the type of pet, their age, life expectancy and whether they have or might have health issues in the future. If you own multiple pets, the pet trust must address all their needs.

The funds are used to cover veterinary bills, food, grooming, housing and compensation, if needed, for a caretaker. The trust will also need to include a contingency provision in case the primary caregiver becomes incapacitated or can’t care for the pets and someone else needs to step into the role.

The pet trust should also include plans for what happens when the pet dies. Do you want them to be cremated or buried, and what do you want to happen to any remaining funds in the trust? The people who love their pets enough to create a pet trust often decide to leave any remaining funds in the trust to a local animal shelter.

A common question in creating a pet trust is this: should the same person who is taking care of the pets also oversee the assets in the trust? The trustee oversees the assets and pays the caretaker. The problem is, if the caretaker doesn’t use the funds to care for the pet as you’ve outlined in the trust, who will monitor the money or the care of the pet? Many people prefer to have two different people involved, just in case.

Can you simply ask an adult child to take care of your beloved pet if you become sick or if you die before the pet? In theory, the answer is yes. However, your adult child or anyone you ask to care for your pet is under no legal obligation, unless you’ve created a pet trust and they’ve agreed to take on the role of either caretaker or trustee or both.

If you don’t have someone to care for your pet, check with your local animal shelter. No-kill shelters often have arrangements where a fee or donation is used to ensure lifetime pet care for a companion animal.

Your estate planning attorney will know how to create a pet trust to care for your furry companions, providing you with the peace of mind knowing they won’t end up in a shelter or living on the streets.

Reference: Pets Radar (April 4, 2025) “Oprah’s dogs will inherit a $30 million fortune—here’s why”

What Should Be Included in Your Estate Plan?

“In addition to the health care directive, other items that are part of estate planning include designating a financial power of attorney and establishing a will or trust.”

Estate planning attorneys often have clients who are more than 100 years old. However, those clients have usually made all their estate planning decisions while they were far younger, like in their 70s or 80s! A recent article, “Guidelines for estate planning, from a Golden Valley attorney,” from Sun Post, explains what your estate plan should include and why.

People should have their estate plans in place long before they turn 100, to provide peace of mind for themselves and for their heirs and executors, who will need to take over their affairs in case of incapacity or when they ultimately die.

Everyone should have a healthcare directive, sometimes called a Power of Attorney for Healthcare or Healthcare Proxy. This allows another person to have access to medical information and acts to express your wishes if you can’t communicate your wishes because of illness or an injury.

One person should be appointed to follow your healthcare and end-of-life instructions. Making your wishes clear in a legally binding document ensures that your loved ones know what you want and will help them make decisions for your care during a healthcare crisis.

You’ll also want a financial power of attorney in place so someone else can manage your financial life. Some people opt to make their bank accounts payable to a trust or retitle the bank as a “Transfer on Death” (TOD) account. This lets someone gain access to your finances. Let’s say you needed to be hospitalized for an extended period—having these documents in place will allow bills to be paid, your home maintained and avoid penalties for late or non-payment.

Many people today have trusts to prevent the estate from going through probate. When a will goes through probate, it becomes part of the public record. Probate takes time and can be costly. While probate in some jurisdictions isn’t as bad as in others, it can delay settling your estate by months or years.

Everyone who is over 18 needs to have a will. A will describes how your assets are to be distributed. If you have family heirlooms, for instance, your will can clarify who you want to receive a necklace or piece of art. The will instructs your executor, so they know exactly what you want to happen.

Your will is also used to nominate a guardian for minor children. Parents should always have a will, so they can name the person they want to raise their children in case both parents die.

Not having an estate plan leads to all kinds of problems for families. For one thing, the distribution of assets, and who should be the guardian for children and executor of your estate, are all decided according to the state’s laws. You may not have wanted your first cousin to raise your children. However, the court will make the decision for you. It’s better to have a will.

If you already have a will but haven’t updated it in more than three years, it’s time to dust it off and have it reviewed by an experienced estate planning attorney. Changes in your life and tax laws could mean that your will isn’t going to work the way it once did.

A final note: ask your estate planning attorney about how to store your estate planning documents. If your documents are stored at a safe deposit box, they will be sealed upon death and won’t be accessed until a court order has been obtained. This can delay settling the estate and create complications for loved ones.

Reference: Sun Post (March 20, 2025) “Guidelines for estate planning, from a Golden Valley attorney”

How Estate Planning Can Transfer Ownership of the Family Home

“It can be emotionally taxing to think about what happens after your death and creating a plan that works for you and ensures that your loved ones are protected requires a lot of time and effort.”

Starting and finishing an estate plan will not only provide peace of mind but also save your heirs from the stress and expense of going through the probate process. This is especially true if your plan is to bequeath the family home to loved ones, says a recent article from Cleveland Jewish News, “Estate planning simplifies inheriting a home.”

If no estate planning is done, the amount of time and paperwork to pass the home to a family member can become overwhelming. Planned correctly, the transition is far more efficient and less costly.

There are a few different ways that this can be accomplished. An estate planning attorney will know the best way for your unique situation. For instance, if you own the home with a spouse, typically Jointly With Rights of Survivorship (JWROS), each owner has an undivided interest in the house. The surviving spouse will follow the rules in their jurisdiction. This usually requires filing a document with the county recorder’s office with an affidavit of survivor and death certificate, and the interest of the decedent will pass to the surviving tenant.

If two or more people own the home together but not JWROS, when one of the owners dies, their interest in the house will need to go through probate. This can get sticky, especially if their heirs have a different plan for their share of the house than the other person or persons who own the home. This is a common estate planning disaster, often leading to litigation.

Another way to protect the inheritance of a home is to have a Transfer-on-Death (TOD) designation affidavit. The owner can sign the document, and the house ownership will be transferred upon their death without going through probate. If you have a straightforward estate plan, ask your estate planning attorney if this option is permitted in your jurisdiction.

If you have a more complicated estate, significant wealth, minor children, or adult children with disabilities, it’s time to discuss trusts with your estate planning attorney.

If a trust is used, the deed for the home must be retitled so the trust owns the home. Upon the death of the original owner, the home is dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the trust.

These are just a few ways home ownership can be transferred to another person and remain outside of probate. Estate planning is a highly personal process, where many factors need to be taken into consideration before the best solution can be determined.

To find the best solution for your own situation, meet with an experienced estate planning attorney in your community. They’ll be able to prepare an estate plan to achieve your wishes for the future, protect your family and give you the peace of mind of knowing you’ve taken care of those you love.

Reference: Cleveland Jewish News (March 25, 2025) “Estate planning simplifies inheriting a home”

The Coming ‘Great Wealth Transfer’ and Estate Planning

“You don’t need a hefty bank balance or massive estate in order to need a will and estate plan.”

As a huge number of baby boomers turn 65 from now through 2027, most people should be thinking about managing their money amid the so-called “great wealth transfer,” when as much as $72 trillion is expected to move from one generation to the next. A recent article from MarketWatch, “As a $72 trillion ‘great wealth transfer’ is set to begin, here are 4 estate-planning rules to follow,” offers some tips.

Every adult should have a last will and testament and a financial power of attorney, so someone can manage their financial affairs if they become incapacitated. You’ll also need a healthcare proxy to name a person who can make medical decisions on your behalf.

Update beneficiary designations on 401(k)s, investment accounts and any financial accounts naming a beneficiary. Whatever is on those documents supersedes trusts and wills. These should be reviewed every few years or after any major life events like marriage, divorce, the birth of new children or grandchildren, or the death of a beneficiary.

Secure your important documents and make sure your executor, trustee and a trusted family member know where they are. The executor should also have contact information for your estate planning attorney, CPA and financial advisor.

Review your overall estate plan every three to five years. If your estate plan was created when your  children were minors and now they’re adults, it’s time to revisit your estate plan.

A will alone might work for a simple estate. However, if you have complicated finances or significant wealth, you should talk with your estate planning attorney about a Revocable Living Trust. Putting assets into trusts allows assets to pass to beneficiaries without going through probate, which is often expensive and time-consuming. Once the trust is established, you’ll need to fund it by retitling assets, so they are taken out of your estate and owned by the trust.

Wills, trusts and estate planning documents should be reviewed and updated on three occasions: every three to five years if your life doesn’t change much, every time there is a major event in your life, commonly called a “trigger” event and whenever there is a large change to tax laws.

The estate planning community is now preparing for the possible end of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which raised the federal estate and gift tax exemptions to historically high levels. Unless the rule is extended, on January 1, 2026, these limits will return to previous amounts, with estates around $7 million subject to federal estate taxes. If your wealth is near the $7 million mark and you haven’t met with your estate planning attorney to prepare for this potential change, now is the time to make an appointment.

Once your estate plan is up to date, it’s a good idea to have conversations with family members, the people you’ve named as executors, power of attorneys and beneficiaries. If you have a plan but haven’t shared it with children or heirs, it could lead to family fights, even leading to litigation.

Your estate planning attorney will help create an estate plan to meet your needs and protect your loved ones. It’s a task to tackle sooner, rather than later.

Reference: MarketWatch (April 3, 2025) “As a $72 trillion ‘great wealth transfer’ is set to begin, here are 4 estate-planning rules to follow”

Create a Succession Plan to Keep Family and Business Together

“As the founder of News Corporation, Murdoch built a global empire, which includes influential media outlets, like The Wall Street Journal and Fox News. However, his succession planning—or lack thereof—has been rife with controversy and challenges.”

Murdoch created a succession plan. However, he made some critical errors, landing him and his children in a public court battle and dooming family relationships. The planning issues resulted from a lack of clarity, power struggles over his media empire and family disputes, says a recent article from MSN, “Learn From Rupert Murdoch’s Errors—Create a Succession Plan Today to Protect Your Company’s Legacy.”

The trouble started when Murdoch appointed his son Lachlan as his primary heir. The other three children objected and sued their father. Murdoch wasn’t even dead, and the succession battle had begun. The company’s reputation and stability felt an impact, to say nothing of the family relationships.

A structured succession plan could have prevented this and much of what followed. With a succession plan, businesses of any size will have a road map for the future and avoid significant internal conflicts.

A recent survey from a major accounting firm in 2021 showed that only 30% of family-owned businesses have created and communicated a robust succession plan. If you own a business and don’t have a succession plan, everything you’ve worked for over the years could fall apart. Here are four lessons from the Murdoch debacle to consider.

Don’t wait to create a succession plan. Some estate planning attorneys say business owners should start preparing their plan about ten years before they expect to retire. The process of documenting the entire business, from how inventory is managed, transportation conducted, sales relationships and all the processes needed to create a proper plan takes time. Developing leadership and preparing for the human resources aspect of a transaction is equally time and labor-intensive.

Be completely open and honest with family members, key employees and other stakeholders. You’ll want everyone to know what to expect, understand what drove certain decisions and be on board with your vision for the future. Transparency does more than manage expectations, it reduces the potential for conflicts. If there are going to be problems with your succession plan, doing it in a timely manner, years in advance, will give you and your company time to address them.

Be able to separate your personal and professional lives. If your plan is to sell or gift your business to family members, there will be many benefits, including gift tax exemptions and income-splitting. However, there will also be challenges.

Plan for the unexpected. Business owners know things never go exactly as planned. Be ready to pivot with a succession plan, including multiple courses in case of change.

A good succession plan identifies key roles for those stepping into leadership positions. Those roles need to be defined clearly and communicated. Honestly assess the skills of the family members you intend to put into positions. Listen to trusted advisors who may have a less emotional response to decisions about family members.

Build a strong team of advisors. Your team will include an estate planning attorney, CPA, financial advisor and possibly a forensic CPA to evaluate the company’s value, processes and assets. If your retirement finances are linked to the transfer or sale of your business, there will be estate planning strategies to embrace to be sure there’s a happy ending for all concerned.

Reference: MSN (March 28, 2025) “Learn From Rupert Murdoch’s Errors—Create a Succession Plan Today to Protect Your Company’s Legacy”

Can Estate Planning Strategies Protect Cryptocurrency?

“Creditors, hackers and frivolous lawsuit filers could be targeting your cryptocurrencies. These essential estate planning and asset protection strategies could help.”

Cryptocurrency’s volatility hasn’t daunted investors, and money continues to pour into this asset class. As cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream and a larger portion of Americans’ wealth, it needs to be included in estate plans, according to a recent article from Kiplinger, “Is Your Cryptocurrency Safe?” How to Shield Digital Assets.”

Implementing the right estate planning tools now can help protect your digital wealth from estate taxes, creditors and unforeseen events. Here are five strategies to discuss with your estate planning attorney:

Use asset protection trusts and LLCs. Using a Limited Liability Company to own your cryptocurrency and then placing it into a properly structured trust ensures that digital assets are off-limits to creditors, which could help preserve your wealth in case of litigation.

If you’re wealthy, you may attract litigation, justified or not. There are proactive steps you can take to reduce the incentive for someone to pursue a frivolous claim against you. Consult with your estate planning attorney about asset protection strategies to minimize the visibility of your cryptocurrency holdings.

Include cryptocurrency in your estate plan. Your will, trusts and other estate planning documents need to take into account the challenges of this relatively new asset class. Properly drafted, an estate plan can help prevent your heirs from being subject to excessive estate taxes and facilitate the transfer of digital wealth to your heirs.

Keep excellent records. The decentralized nature of crypto makes it impossible for anyone who isn’t knowledgeable about digital assets to track or trace transactions and accounts. This makes digital wealth vulnerable to loss, and there are numerous anecdotes of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency being lost forever due to inadequate record-keeping. You’ll want to keep detailed transaction histories and maintain information, including usernames, passwords, security question answers, access credentials, private keys and any two-factor authentication information. Don’t include this information in your will, as it becomes a public document when admitted to probate.

Securely store digital assets. Hardware wallets or online wallets are used to hold digital assets. However, they are not the only tools used to protect cryptocurrencies. You’ll want to have strong antivirus protection, anti-malware software, a robust firewall and regular security audits of your system. Like an estate plan, digital security is not a “set it and forget it” exercise. It is rather an asset that requires ongoing maintenance and updates.

Name a digital executor who will be able to manage your cryptocurrency. No matter how skilled your brother is with financial matters, if he’s a Luddite who shuns technology, you’ll need to appoint someone else as your digital executor. Identify a person whom you trust and who is comfortable navigating the world of bits and bytes, cold wallets and NFTs.

By working with an experienced estate planning attorney who is knowledgeable in estate planning, taxes and cryptocurrency, you can secure your investments, minimize estate taxes and maintain your holdings throughout your lifetime.

Reference: Kiplinger (March 21, 2025) “Is Your Cryptocurrency Safe? How to Shield Digital Assets.”

Should I Have an Advanced Health Care Directive and a POLST?

“A POLST is a voluntary form you complete with your physician and is normally completed by patients who are seriously or terminally ill or otherwise medically frail.”

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the numerous acronyms in estate planning. However, it’s essential to understand which documents you need and which ones you may not yet require. The POLST is a prime example. According to a recent article from MSN, “Liza Horvath, Senior Advocate: Do I need a POLST?” everyone should have a will, a power of attorney for finances and an advance healthcare directive (AHCD).

A will is used to distribute assets after death, while the power of attorney is used to name a representative to act on your behalf for financial matters. In contrast, the AHCD and POLST are used to express your wishes regarding medical care. The AHCD and the POLST are also slightly different from the Healthcare Proxy or Power of Attorney for Healthcare.

Many estate planning documents have different names in various states. Therefore, it’s essential to consult with an estate planning attorney in your area to determine which documents are required. A document created and executed in one state may not be valid in another state. Therefore, if you spend time in more than one jurisdiction, you’ll need to ensure that your estate planning documents are aligned with the laws of all applicable states.

If you are seriously ill and don’t want to be resuscitated in a medical emergency, you should have both the AHCD and the POLST. The POLST is an acronym for Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. The Advance Health Care Directive appoints a person to express your wishes regarding healthcare as outlined in the document.

The POLST, which is completed with your physician, is used to tell emergency responders and other healthcare providers not to resuscitate you in case of cardiac arrest. The AHCD is not a “don’t resuscitate” order.

If you have a POLST, it should be kept in your home, possibly posted on the refrigerator, where anyone entering the house for an emergency is likely to see it. You may want to provide copies to your physician and local hospital and keep a copy in your car. The POLST is usually printed on bright paper for higher visibility.

If emergency responders come to your home and they don’t see the POLST, they are required by law to keep you alive. If your adult child has the POLST, but it’s not in your home, again, they will take measures to keep you alive.

POLST, like other estate planning documents, should be prepared with thoughtfulness. While both the AHCD and POLST can be emotionally challenging to consider, having them in place as part of your overall estate plan will alleviate the guesswork your family will face if they are unsure of your wishes. You don’t want this to happen during a health emergency when emotions are running high.

Discuss with the person you are naming as your healthcare agent to ensure that they understand your wishes. If your sibling is too emotional to follow your wishes and tells you she won’t be able to instruct the doctors to take you off life support, then she may not be the right person to act as your healthcare proxy. Name a person who will follow your wishes, even if they differ from their own.

Having a comprehensive estate plan means having the right documents in place for your healthcare, in sickness and in health. Your estate planning attorney will help create the documents to express your wishes, whatever they may be.

Reference: MSN (March 17, 2025) “Liza Horvath, Senior Advocate: Do I need a POLST?”