“One needs to keep reminding themselves of higher goals at all times while observing the outcomes of smaller actions.” - Dr. Prem Jagyasi
What You and Your Family Need to Know
From facing a global pandemic, to receiving a scary health diagnosis or learning that you need to undergo major surgery, you may be overwhelmed trying to prepare. Any health event can cause substantial disruption in your day-to-day life. During this time, the last thing you may want to think about is estate planning. Although you may have many things going through your head at the moment, now is a crucial time to make sure your estate plan is in order. Proactive planning can help put your mind at ease and let you focus on your health. Let’s review your estate plan together to make sure each of the following important components is up to date and reflects your current goals and wishes. The first step for many is remembering where they put it. Now is a good time to locate your important documents and let someone know where they can find them if they are needed. If you do not have an estate plan yet, the following will give you a good start in thinking about the decisions you will need to make to put a plan in place.
Once located, review the following three important areas of your estate plan:
Healthcare Documents
Your healthcare documents include your health care powers of attorney, advance directives (health care instructions), and medical releases. These documents let you appoint someone to receive information about your medical condition and to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to do so. You probably already know which of your loved ones you’d like at the helm if a situation arises. But whomever you’ve chosen needs to be given the explicit authority to act so that you can rest easy knowing they’ll be able to make decisions when you need them. When reviewing these documents, you will want to give some consideration to important questions like whether person you have appointed is still willing and able to serve, and whether your documents accurately reflect your wishes related to end of life care. Occasionally, we also find that a health care power of attorney (or advance health care directive), has expired or is no longer effective. If you are concerned that your documents are outdated or expired, it is important to get them updated.
Financial Power of Attorney
While a healthcare agent or proxy can make decisions on your behalf in medical scenarios, a financial power of attorney concerns your money, investments, bills and taxes. Although it relates to different decisions, it is just as important a designation. Having this document in place can give a trusted person (such as a spouse, child, friend or even a professional fiduciary) the authority to help you with your finances and property so these issues don’t have to be a distraction while you focus on your health. We recommend that you ask yourself similar questions when reviewing these documents, including whether the agent you have designated is still willing and able to serve, and whether the document grants all of the powers your agent might need. In addition, some financial powers of attorney are effective immediately, while others are effective only upon incapacity. Knowing which you have, and how to use it if it is needed, is very important.
Updated Trust
An up-to-date and fully-funded trust lets you focus on your health while your successor trustee handles the affairs of your trust, which could include most, if not all of your assets. In this case, you’ll still receive the benefit of your trust but your successor trustee will manage the trust on your behalf. If there’s not sufficient time to fully fund a trust, then an up-to-date will can at least put you in control of who receives what upon your death. When time is of the essence, a will may be the only realistic planning tool, but if you already have a trust it can be a relatively easy process to update and fully fund it. In addition to making sure the trust still reflects your wishes, making sure that it is “fully funded” is something that can and should be done on a regular basis.
A little planning goes a long way when it comes to medically-trying times. As busy as you may be when you’re handling your own medical issues or the medical issues of a loved one, even one conversation can be enough for us to define and implement the estate planning documents that will help you feel more prepared for whatever comes next. Please reach out to us if you have any questions, so we can chat about your needs and ensure that you have peace of mind.