King & Wood, P.A.

Can I Protect My Family after Death?

“The future is uncertain. However, you can ensure that your family and loved ones are taken care of with estate planning. Estate planning is a critical component of financial planning for the future.”

Estate planning involves a close look at personal and financial goals while you are living and after you have died, as explained in a recent article titled “Professional Advice: Secure your future with estate planning” from Northwest Indiana Business Magazine. Having a comprehensive estate plan ensures that your wishes will be carried out and loved ones protected.

Your last will and testament identifies the people who should receive an inheritance—heirs—who will manage your estate—executor—and who will take care of your minor children—guardian. Without a valid will, the state will rely on its own laws to distribute assets and assign a guardian to minor children. The state laws may not follow your wishes. However, there won’t be anything your family can do if you didn’t prepare a will.

Assets with beneficiary designations can be passed to heirs without going through probate. Certain assets, like life insurance policies and retirement accounts, allow a primary and secondary beneficiary to be named. These assets can be transferred to the intended beneficiaries swiftly and efficiently.

Many people use trusts to pass assets for a variety of reasons. For example, a trust can be created for a family member with special needs, protecting their eligibility to receive government benefits. Depending on the type of trust you create, you might be able to eliminate estate taxes. Certain trusts are also useful in protecting assets from creditors and lawsuits, and ensure that assets are distributed according to your wishes.

Revocable living trusts provide protection in case of incapacity, avoid probate and ancillary probate and may provide asset protection for beneficiaries. If you are the creator of a trust—grantor—you will need to appoint a successor trustee to manage the trust if you are the original trustee and become incapacitated. Upon death, a revocable trust usually becomes irrevocable. Assets placed in the trust avoid probate, the court proceeding used to settle an estate, which can be both time-consuming and costly.

A Power of Attorney allows you to name a person who will handle your financial affairs and protect assets in the event of incapacity. That person—your agent—may pay bills, sell assets and work with an elder law estate planning attorney on Medicaid planning. The POA should be customized to your personal situation. you may give the agent broad or narrow powers.

Everyone should also have a Health Care Proxy, which gives the person named the legal right to make health care decisions on your behalf if you are unable to. You’ll also want to have a HIPAA Release Form (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), so your agent can speak with all health care providers, access medical records and speak with the health insurance company on your behalf.

A Living Will is the document used to convey your wishes regarding end-of-life care if you are unable to do so yourself. It is certainly not pleasant to contemplate. However, it should be thought of as a kindness to your loved ones. Without knowing your wishes, they may be forced to make a decision and will never know if it was what you wanted. A Living Will also avoids conflicts between health care providers and family members and makes a stressful time a little less so.

Having a comprehensive estate plan provides protection for the individual and their family members. It avoids costly and stressful problems arising from the complex events accompanying illness and death. Every three to five years (or when life or financial circumstances warrant), meet with an estate planning attorney to keep your estate plan on track.

Reference: Northwest Indiana Business Magazine (Dec. 27, 2022) “Professional Advice: Secure your future with estate planning”

How Does Guardianship Work?

“If you haven't had any experience with guardianship for adults with dementia, it's likely you don't understand just how complex it is. You are not alone.”

For family members of the estimated 6.5 million dementia patients in the U.S., it is crucial to understand whether guardianship may be an option for their loved one. A recent article from Next Avenue titled “Thinking of Becoming a Guardian?” explains how the guardianship process works and what factors go into the decision-making process.

Guardianship is the position of being responsible for someone else. State courts usually appoint a guardian to make decisions for a person, if the court finds that person to be incapacitated or unable to make safe and reasonable decisions for themselves. People who are placed under guardianship, known as “wards,” often lose their independence in making financial, legal and health care decisions.

If full guardianship is awarded, the person cannot make decisions about whether they may vote, marry, where they live, or make their own end-of-life decisions.

Two tasks that are evaluated when considering guardianship are a person’s ability to manage personal finances and to take medications as prescribed.

The court may call on a geriatrician or psychiatrist to evaluate the person’s functional behavior, cognitive function, disabling conditions and ability to meet their essential needs.

There are benefits to guardianship for someone who is not able to care for themselves. It ideally creates a safety net for a person who cannot make informed decisions for themselves.

this, of course, assumes that the guardian is honest and accountable, which is not always the case. The inconsistencies plaguing the guardianship system include minimum standards for guardians, lack of regular independent reviews of the need for guardianship and lack of educational requirements for guardians.

Once guardianship is assigned, there is a tendency for the person to become lost when no follow-up is done. The very same person who lacks capacity to care for themselves is not going to be able to advocate for themselves, contact an attorney or access funds for court proceedings.

There is also a tendency to assign full guardianship for a person, rather than less restrictive alternatives.

There are alternatives, but they require planning and discussion. More than 40% of Americans have not discussed their wishes for end-of-life care with their loved ones, according to an article in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Families should have a conversation at the first sign of memory loss or when preparing for retirement regarding wishes for end-of-life care and write them down as part of an Advanced Directive—also known as a Living Will and Health Care Power of Attorney—when preparing their estate plan.

Another important document, although not legally binding, is a “Value History,” where you share your values and beliefs as they may impact care choices.

Designate a Power of Attorney and list two or even three back-up candidates. This person will be responsible for financial, legal and personal matters, avoiding the need for guardianship.

Appointing a family member or friend as a guardian is the ideal solution. However, there are instances when the best person to be a guardian is not a family member, but a court-appointed outsider. This relieves the family of being the ones who need to inform a person suffering from dementia with the news of having to move into a nursing home facility or sifting through financial records to learn that the family home is in foreclosure. The family can focus on being supportive and loving, while the guardian deals with the sometimes harsh realities of the person’s life.

Speak with your estate planning attorney to learn about how guardianship works, and whether it may be the right move for your family.

Reference: Next Avenue (Dec. 23, 2022) “Thinking of Becoming a Guardian?”

Top Five Estate Planning Mistakes

“Overlooking an important step or making a blunder can derail all your careful planning, leaving your heirs and beneficiaries with a headache-inducing challenge.”

Everyone should have an estate plan, whether it’s a simple will or a detailed and complex one with trusts and strategies for multiple generations. The more care and thought put into the plan, says a recent article, “5 Common Estate Planning Mistakes to Avoid” from Kiplinger, the better the outcome. There are some common mistakes you can avoid with a little foreknowledge.

Failing to plan for incapacity. People think about creating wills and trusts with their mortality in mind. However, incapacity planning is just as important, in some cases, more important, than death. A good estate plan identifies the people authorized to make important decisions on your behalf concerning finances, health care and other important issues. It also empowers them to do so with powers of attorney. Once you are unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, you can no longer legally assign someone else to act on your behalf. Preparing for others to make decisions for you should not be overlooked.

Neglecting funeral and burial wishes. If you were kind enough to purchase a burial plot and make funeral plans, don’t make your children have to conduct a scavenger hunt. Talk with them about it and tell them where they can find the deed to your plot and the contract with the funeral home. Name a point person who will be in charge of the funeral and burial arrangements and make sure they know your wishes. If you want to be cremated, make it clear to loved ones. The more information you share before your death, the more likely your wishes will be followed.

Not considering the tax implications of transferring property. Don’t leave your loved ones a huge tax bill. It may seem generous to gift property to heirs during your lifetime. However, in many instances, giving when you have passed will create a far smaller tax burden. Your estate planning attorney will work with you to determine how to minimize taxes and maximize your gifts.

Name back-ups for key decision makers. The unthinkable happens. Spouses perish in the same accidents. If no secondary beneficiary has been named, who inherits the estate? Name additional and alternative beneficiaries in case of unfortunate occurrences. You should name a backup executor, financial power of attorney and health care agent. If a person named in your estate documents cannot fulfill their role because of death, incapacity or other reason, the court will name substitutes.

Forgetting to clarify and update beneficiary designations. If your will says you want all of your children to get an equal share of your estate, but one child is on a joint investment account and another is on a Payable Upon Death checking account, you’ve created potential disputes. It’s important to list out the beneficiaries, their asset shares and create a directive to your bank to set the interests in your accounts upon your death. Your bank may require you to change how accounts are titled to achieve your goals. Therefore, you should take care of this while you are living, so you can make any needed changes.

Reference: Kiplinger (Oct. 20, 2022) “5 Common Estate Planning Mistakes to Avoid”

Is Spouse Automatically Your Beneficiary?

“If the surviving spouse is a second or subsequent spouse and did not have any children with the decedent, the surviving spouse takes even less.”

People make a grave error when they don’t have a will because they think their surviving spouse will automatically inherit all of their worldly goods. The laws of intestacy work differently, as explained in a recent article “Estate Planning: The spouse doesn’t always get everything” from nwi.com.

The surviving spouse rarely receives everything under the intestate laws. This often comes as a surprise to people. The usual response is “Oh, that can’t be right.” Oh, but it is!

In many states, one half of the decedent’s probate assets are distributed to the spouse and the other half are distributed to the decedent’s child or children.

If it’s a second or third marriage and the couple didn’t have children of their own, the surviving spouse ends up with even less.

Assets are divided between the spouse and biological children.

Bear in mind the intestate laws only apply to probate assets. Assets owned jointly will go to the other joint owner, as well as assets listing the surviving spouse as the beneficiary.

If you’d prefer to leave more to your spouse, you need a will. Intestacy literally translates to dying without a will. If you have a will and then die, you haven’t died intestate, and the provisions don’t apply.

However, there’s more to consider. Depending on your state’s laws, if you die and there are no living children, the spouse still doesn’t necessarily inherit everything. If your parents are living, they are also entitled to a portion of the estate.

This is another reason why it’s so important to have a complete estate plan, including a last will and testament, powers of attorney and health care power of attorney.

Trusts are used to control how assets are distributed, either during life or upon death. You can create a trust to be used by your spouse by creating the trust, funding it with assets and setting the terms of the distribution.

Each state has its own laws of intestacy, so an estate planning attorney who practices in your state needs to be contacted to determine what would happen to your spouse if you didn’t have a will. Your best recommendation is to meet with an experienced estate planning attorney and create a plan to protect your spouse and your children

Reference: nwi.com (Oct. 23, 2022) “Estate Planning: The spouse doesn’t always get everything”

Why Is it Important to Have an Estate Plan?

“The problem is that while you expect to die of old age, this is not always guaranteed–which may cause uncertainties in the way your assets are distributed.”

By the time you reach your thirties, it’s likely you’ve accumulated some assets—maybe a home, a car, a savings account and some cryptocurrency. However, if you are like most millennials, even though you know you should have a will, you probably don’t. A recent article, “5 Reasons Estate Planning Is So Important” from The Baltic Times, reports a staggering 68% of millennials don’t have will or an estate plan. If you own anything, you need an estate plan. Here’s why.

A kindness to your family. A family can have great relationships. However, when someone dies and everyone thinks they have a right to the estate, fights can begin. Even if you’ve shared holidays throughout your lives, a court battle will put an end to your traditions. If there are divorced members of the family, it can become even more complicated.

An estate plan can prevent these disputes before they begin. It gives you time to discuss your plans with beneficiaries. If you have difficult family members, you may want to have a conversation in your estate planning attorney’s office. The presence of an estate planning attorney often puts family members on notice: you’re serious about this and are not going to be manipulated.

Protection for beneficiaries. Not everyone wants their immediate family to be their beneficiaries. Let’s say someone is separated but not divorced. They want to be sure their children or other family members inherit. However, without a will, the spouse will still be first in line from a next-of-kin standpoint. An estate plan directs who you want to get your property.

There are other documents in estate plans, including trusts, to further protect assets. A trust can allow you to leave property for minor children in a trust and determine exactly when you want them to receive the assets. That may be over their lifetimes, or when they reach certain milestones.

Minimize taxes for the estate and beneficiaries. Certain states have estate taxes and inheritance taxes. Even if the value of your estate doesn’t reach current federal estate tax exemption levels ($12.06 million for individuals in 2022), there may be other estate taxes you could avoid or minimize through estate planning.

Intestacy statute law. If you don’t have a will, the state has one for you, but you may not like it. Each state has what’s called “intestacy” statutes which direct how estates should be distributed when people don’t have wills. If you didn’t want your immediate family to inherit your property, it won’t matter if you don’t have a will. The partner or close friend who may be your family of choice won’t have any ability to challenge the law.

Peace of mind for you and your loved ones. Creating an estate plan establishes a legally enforceable blueprint of what you want to happen to your assets. If you have minor children, an estate plan is used to name the guardian you want to raise your children. Your estate plan also names who you want to make decisions for you if you become incapacitated through a Power of Attorney, and who may make healthcare decisions for you—Health Care Power of Attorney.

Once you have your estate plan done, you’ll find a worry you didn’t even know you had has lifted. You’ve done the right thing to protect yourself and your loved ones. It’s a good feeling to know that you’ve taken care of those you love.

Reference: The Baltic Times (Sep. 29, 2022) “5 Reasons Estate Planning Is So Important”

How Important Is a Health Care Power of Attorney?

“It is your right to keep your health information private, but is that always what is in your best interests?”

Health care decisions are often the most personal and private decisions a person can make. Information about your health can be very sensitive and if revealed to the wrong person, cause embarrassment, job loss and harm to your reputation. The HIPAA law (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) was created to provide restrictive protection of medical care. A recent article from The Sentinel titled “Elder Care: The power of an informed healthcare agent” explains how this law makes it more important than ever to have a Healthcare Power of Attorney (POA) in place.

If you think you’re too young or healthy to need a health care POA, think again. If a sharp decline in health occurs, your dignity and care may fare far better with a POA than without, for several reasons. For one, if done in advance, you are the one who chooses who your health care advocate will be.

You may not think an estate planning lawyer’s office is the place to go to deal with important health care decisions. However, this is an important part of your estate plan. Planning for incapacity is as much a part of estate planning as is planning for asset distribution postmortem.

What would happen if you were still alive but not able to understand what is happening around you or unable to speak for yourself? Who would you want making critical medical decisions on your part? Your estate plan includes a Health Care Power of Attorney, which authorizes a person of your choice to be your advocate and authorize or refuse medical treatment, based on the wishes you express in this important document.

Giving someone you trust the power to make health care decisions for you has to be done while you still have capacity. Once you are incapacitated by a medical emergency, even if you have some limited ability to express your wishes, you are not legally permitted to sign this document.

A Health Care Power of Attorney is valuable even without a sudden decline in health or a serious diagnosis. Even in routine medical situations, there are benefits to naming a health care agent. Let’s say you go in for a routine colonoscopy, which is a common procedure for anyone over age 50. Several polyps are discovered and someone has to authorize the doctor’s taking them out. If you have a Health Care Power of Attorney and your agent is waiting nearby, they can authorize the removal. If not, and if the doctor has not asked for prior consent to remove the polyps, then you’d have to wait for a post-procedure meeting with the doctor and then undergo the entire procedure all over again.

Ideally, more than one person should be named as your health care agent. If the primary person is not reachable and an emergency occurs, someone else will be able to step up and help as needed.

Your estate planning attorney should also prepare a Living Will to provide guidance on end-of-life medical decisions. This includes whether you want to be resuscitated, how much medical treatment you would want in case of severe and irreversible brain damage and what life-extending procedures you’d want if you are dying from an end-stage medical condition.

Your estate planning attorney will help guide you through these decisions, since they are ultimately yours to make. However, the idea of having them in place before they are needed puts you in charge of what will happen when you can’t speak for yourself. It’s not easy to consider, but better done than left undone.

Reference: The Sentinel (Sep. 23, 2022) “Elder Care: The power of an informed healthcare agent”

How Important Is a Health Care Power of Attorney?

“It is your right to keep your health information private, but is that always what is in your best interests?”

Health care decisions are often the most personal and private decisions a person can make. Information about your health can be very sensitive and if revealed to the wrong person, cause embarrassment, job loss and harm to your reputation. The HIPAA law (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) was created to provide restrictive protection of medical care. A recent article from The Sentinel titled “Elder Care: The power of an informed healthcare agent” explains how this law makes it more important than ever to have a Healthcare Power of Attorney (POA) in place.

If you think you’re too young or healthy to need a health care POA, think again. If a sharp decline in health occurs, your dignity and care may fare far better with a POA than without, for several reasons. For one, if done in advance, you are the one who chooses who your health care advocate will be.

You may not think an estate planning lawyer’s office is the place to go to deal with important health care decisions. However, this is an important part of your estate plan. Planning for incapacity is as much a part of estate planning as is planning for asset distribution postmortem.

What would happen if you were still alive but not able to understand what is happening around you or unable to speak for yourself? Who would you want making critical medical decisions on your part? Your estate plan includes a Health Care Power of Attorney, which authorizes a person of your choice to be your advocate and authorize or refuse medical treatment, based on the wishes you express in this important document.

Giving someone you trust the power to make health care decisions for you has to be done while you still have capacity. Once you are incapacitated by a medical emergency, even if you have some limited ability to express your wishes, you are not legally permitted to sign this document.

A Health Care Power of Attorney is valuable even without a sudden decline in health or a serious diagnosis. Even in routine medical situations, there are benefits to naming a health care agent. Let’s say you go in for a routine colonoscopy, which is a common procedure for anyone over age 50. Several polyps are discovered and someone has to authorize the doctor’s taking them out. If you have a Health Care Power of Attorney and your agent is waiting nearby, they can authorize the removal. If not, and if the doctor has not asked for prior consent to remove the polyps, then you’d have to wait for a post-procedure meeting with the doctor and then undergo the entire procedure all over again.

Ideally, more than one person should be named as your health care agent. If the primary person is not reachable and an emergency occurs, someone else will be able to step up and help as needed.

Your estate planning attorney should also prepare a Living Will to provide guidance on end-of-life medical decisions. This includes whether you want to be resuscitated, how much medical treatment you would want in case of severe and irreversible brain damage and what life-extending procedures you’d want if you are dying from an end-stage medical condition.

Your estate planning attorney will help guide you through these decisions, since they are ultimately yours to make. However, the idea of having them in place before they are needed puts you in charge of what will happen when you can’t speak for yourself. It’s not easy to consider, but better done than left undone.

Reference: The Sentinel (Sep. 23, 2022) “Elder Care: The power of an informed healthcare agent”

What Is the Purpose of a Guardian?

“A frequent concern for those with aging loved ones is the future need for guardianship. Unfortunately, the concept of guardianship can be confusing and overwhelming.”

The most frequently asked questions about guardianship concern when it’s needed, how the process works and is there a way to avoid it. The idea of guardianship may feel troubling if you’ve never known anyone who needed a guardian, says a recent article “Guardian process can be lengthy, difficult” from The News-Enterprise.

Simply put, guardianship is a court proceeding restricting or removing the right of a person to manage their own financial, legal and medical affairs.

Guardianship is not exclusive to elderly individuals, as it is often used to protect adults and older children with disabilities. Guardianship is mainly needed when the person is unable to manage their own finances, incapable of understanding the scope and consequences of making their own medical decisions or is at risk of exploitation due to diminished capacity.

The process for obtaining guardianship for another person is complicated and takes at least several months before a guardianship order is entered into the legal record.

The first step is for the person who seeks guardianship for another person to file a petition with the District Court in the county where the impaired person lives. The person who files the petition is known as the petitioner and the person who needs the guardianship is known as the respondent. The petitioner is usually a family member but may also be a concerned person or an institution, like a nursing facility.

The petition is often paired with a request for emergency guardianship pending a trial. If the court doesn’t order the emergency order immediately, a short trial may be needed to get an emergency order. The court then sets a trial date and issues an order for an evaluation.

Different states have different requirements, which is why the help of an experienced estate planning attorney is needed. In some states, reports from three independent team members are needed: a healthcare professional, which is typically the respondent’s primary care physician; a mental health professional and a social worker, often from Adult Protective Services.

Each person from the team must conduct an independent evaluation and submit a separate report to the court with their findings and a recommendation. In some states, the guardianship moves to a trial, while in other states the trial is held in front of a judge.

If the guardianship is granted, by trial or by the judge, a guardian is appointed to make decisions for the person and a conservator is named. The conservator is in charge of the person’s finances. Both the guardian and conservator are required to file reports with the court concerning their actions on behalf of the respondent throughout the duration of their roles.

How can guardianship be avoided? It’s far simpler and less costly for the family to work with an estate planning attorney to have Durable Powers of Attorney and Health Care Power of Attorney documents created in advance of any incapacity. Paired with fully funded revocable living trusts, the family can have complete control over their loved one without court intervention.

These documents cannot be prepared after a person is incapacitated, so a pro-active approach must be taken long before they are needed.

Reference: The News-Enterprise (Sep. 24, 2022) “Guardian process can be lengthy, difficult”

Is a Living Will the Same as an Advance Directive?

“Most people think of wills as written instructions for use after death. In contrast, living wills provide your instructions for continuing or halting life-sustaining healthcare while you’re alive.”

A comprehensive estate plan contains far more than a last will and testament. It also contains a number of documents to communicate wishes for decisions to be made during life. These include a living will, an advance directive and a healthcare power of attorney, as explained in the article “What Is a Living Will and Do I Need One?” from healthline.

What is a living will? A living will is a document providing instructions for medical care, or in some circumstances, for the termination of medical support. They indicate wishes for the use or discontinuation of life-sustaining medical treatments. The living will is used if the individual becomes incapacitated and cannot communicate normally. Incapacitation is determined and certified by a medical professional. Living wills address such treatments as resuscitation, hydration, a feeding tube and pain management.

Each state has its own rules for creating a legally valid living will. The information required in most states is:

• Legal name and any aliases or nicknames.
• The current day, month and year.
• A statement attesting to being of sound mind and body.
• Healthcare instructions for events with no reasonable expectation for recovery or quality of life, which may include CPR, DNR (do not resuscitate) and do not intubate (DNI).
• The name of your healthcare proxy, the person who you want to communicate and state your wishes and the name of an alternate healthcare proxy, if you have one.
• Witness statements indicating you willingly and rationally signed this document (the number of witnesses varies by state).
• Your legal signature.

An advance directive is not the same thing but can include a living will. The advance directive has two parts: the living will and the healthcare power of attorney. These documents don’t address finances, property distribution, guardianship of children or any non-medical matters. For those, you need a last will and testament.

The healthcare power of attorney is a document identifying the person named to make healthcare decisions for you. It’s sometimes called a durable medical power of attorney. The person you name to make decisions is called your healthcare proxy, healthcare agent, or healthcare surrogate. This document does not address end-of-life care, but instead grants legal permission to the person to make decisions for you.

The living will, advance directive and healthcare power of attorney work together to allow someone else to represent you during a medical crisis. These documents should be created by an experienced estate planning attorney and shared with the people you choose, so they may act on your behalf. Unfortunately, we never know when a medical crisis or accident will occur, so these documents are needed at any age and stage of life.

Reference: healthline (Sep. 1, 2022) “What Is a Living Will and Do I Need One?”

Estate Planning Tips for Solo Seniors

“So, what happens with your estate plans if you are not in a traditional nuclear family? There is quite a lot that can fall under the umbrella of a non-traditional family, and the recommendations will vary depending on your specific circumstances.”

The people who typically think the most about estate planning are those in a traditional nuclear family unit, with spouses, adult children, grandchildren and a clear idea of how they want to pass along assets and who can be trusted to carry out their wishes. It’s easier to plan ahead, reports a recent article titled “Elder Care: Estate planning when you are on your own” from The Sentinel, when the right person to put in charge is easy to identify.

When more and more families do not fall into the traditional nuclear family unit, how should they proceed with estate planning?

This can be a challenging scenario, especially if the person is not married and has no children. It’s hard to know who to name for important roles, like who will take charge if the person becomes ill or dies.

Some single people may think it doesn’t matter, because they don’t care about who inherits their possessions. However, estate planning is not just about distributing property. Planning for incapacity may be the most important part of estate planning—making legally enforceable decisions about medical care, end-of-life care and managing the business aspect of your life if you are incapacitated.

Two of the most important documents for a person who cannot speak for themselves are a Financial Power of Attorney and a Health Care Power of Attorney. These are the critical documents giving the person you designate the ability to manage your affairs and be involved in your medical care.

Without them, someone will need to take over for you. Who will it be? The process begins in the court, with a legal proceeding called guardianship. There are any number of reasons to avoid this. First, it takes a long time and any actions or decisions requiring a legal guardian will not be made with any speed. Second, guardianships are expensive. The process of having a guardian named and the fees paid to the guardian will be paid by you, whether you are conscious or not. While many people who act as guardians for others are trustworthy and kind-hearted, there are many horror stories—including several true stories made into movies—where guardians are more focused on enriching themselves than their ward’s best interests.

Guardianship can be easily avoided. Meeting with an estate planning attorney to prepare your last will and testament, Power of Attorney and Power of Health Care Attorney gives you control over who will be in charge of your life if you are incapacitated. Having these documents properly prepared by an experienced estate planning attorney ensures that you can be admitted to a hospital or facility offering the care you need, your bills will be paid and if your situation requires filing for long-term care benefits or disability, someone can do it for you.

If you don’t have a spouse or children, you probably have a healthy network of friends and extended family members you trust and are your “family by choice.” If you don’t feel these people are trustworthy or capable, think further afield—someone from your community, a neighbor who you respect and trust, etc.

If possible, name a few people in succession (your estate planning attorney will know how to do this) so if one person cannot serve, then there will be a next-in-line to help.

The next step is to speak with these individuals and explain what you are asking them to do. They need to be comfortable with the responsibility you’re asking them to undertake. You’ll also want to tell them your wishes, perhaps drafting a letter of intent, so they will know what to do in different circumstances. Make sure they know where these documents are located, so they can find them easily.

Once your estate plan is in place, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief, knowing the future is taken care of.

Reference: The Sentinel (June 17, 2022) “Elder Care: Estate planning when you are on your own”