Wanting to protect your home and pass it on to your kids is a universal desire. But there are good ways and bad ways to do that. An old adage that “timing is everything’ applies.
The answer is everyone over the age of eighteen. Why? Because at any time in our lives we may become incapacitated, or out of contact and if medical or financial decisions need to be made, then someone you trust should be given the power to make those decisions for you. Military personnel and others who may be assigned to out of the way places always have those two legal documents in place, just in case they are needed. Any of us could be driving down the street and get hit by an inattentive driver. If the ambulance takes you to a hospital unconscious, and you need care decisions made, who do you trust to make those medical decisions. And if for a short time period, or a long time, you are incapable of making those decisions, you want the person you trust to make good decisions in keeping with your wishes. That person must have the emotional strength to make regular decisions or end of life decisions, which in many cases are difficult because emotions are deeply intertwined, even if it is clear that there is no hope.
Those words are all too common for families with elder parents. Falling is the single biggest reason people end up needing long term care, either at home or in assisted living or in a nursing home. Obviously the first line of defense is to take all possible steps to avoid falls, but inevitably it happens to a certain percentage of elders. The question “What should we do?” has three major parts.
Stories of family and friends suddenly needing health care and financial decisions to be made for them, because they temporarily or permanently become incapable of acting for themselves, should make us all take certain steps to protect ourselves and our families. Those certain steps are Power of Attorney to handle financial affairs, a healthcare directive, and a trust or will or both depending on the circumstances. With the right tools in place, your family members or other trusted person can handle your health and financial matters to protect your assets, manage your health care if you cannot and give your whole family peace of mind that any expected or unexpected problem can be handled.
At the risk of delivering this message too many times, it is important for people to think every so often about updating their critical documents, such as wills, trusts, power of attorneys, health care directives (often called living wills) and HIPAA forms. It just takes a few moments to think if the person or persons you have named to act for you are still capable of doing that job. .
It’s a week into the New Year, and all I’ve done (and maybe you too) is finish up the leftover chocolates and cookies, read a biography on George Washington and laze around. So to start the new year properly, all of us should be thinking of what has changed in our lives (if nothing else, we are not getting younger). Have we started to fulfill our New Year’s resolution? And do the older or younger generations of our family, or we ourselves need to finally take simple actions that can make a big difference if sickness, or death should come without warning..
