Other than death, when is an estate plan useful?

Other than death, an estate plan is useful for incapacity. An estate plan can put people in place to make both financial and medical decisions on your behalf if you are incapacitated.

Estate plans are often thought of as death plans. What good is the plan when you are still alive? Well, it certainly can bring you peace when you are alive. After all, it is good to know that the people you love will be taken care of after you pass away. But there is a larger, more practical benefit as well: an incapacity plan.

No one expects to be incapacitated. But the reality is that people are incapacitated every day. You could be in a car accident next month and wind up in a coma. Or you could be diagnosed with dementia in a few years. Or you could lose consciousness this afternoon only to wake up next week in a hospital. Incapacity happens, and you ought to be prepared for that possibility.

This is why every estate plan in Florida should at the very least contain a designation of health care surrogate. I often combine this document with a Living Will for my clients. Together, these documents allow you to designate someone to make decisions for you and to communicate what your heath care wishes are to a doctor. Your surrogate will then have the ability to make the tough calls in the hospital. And if it comes down to a question of whether to remove you from life support, your wishes will be recorded in your living will and followed by the doctor. You should also designate a preneed guardian as part of your estate plan, as this gives you a voice should the need for guardianship arise later. Handling these matters in advance cuts out the potential confusion of multiple loved ones trying to speak on your behalf to a doctor. Instead, one person will be in control, and you get to choose who that person is.

Another important document is a power of attorney. A designation of health care surrogate determines who makes decisions in a medical context, but a power of attorney determines who can make financial decisions. If something happens to you, someone should have the authority to pay your bills and manage your affairs. Otherwise, you might recover only to find yourself ruined because no one looked after your finances. A power of attorney solves this.

A living trust can be drafted to plan for incapacity as well. If you create a living trust, you should make sure that your successor trustee is able to manage the trust assets if you are incapacitated. This will ensure that someone is able to look over your trust assets, should something happen to you.

Estate planning is about far more than death. If you need an estate plan, please set up a free consultation at my office today.