An Effective Estate Plan Begins With a Health Care Power of Attorney

We have all heard the cliches about how family togetherness is more valuable than anything money can buy.  The love, shared memories, and emotional support that you give your family mean more to them than any material things they can inherit.  It is especially helpful to remind yourself of this in tough economic times like these.  Your good intentions and your investment of time and emotional resources can all go up in smoke if you do not make a plan for your end-of-life care and express it clearly. Even a non-life-threatening illness of yours can cause tension within your family.  Ill health can happen to anyone, but you can prevent these problems by drafting a health care power of attorney, even if you have not done any other work on your estate plan.  A Dade City estate planning lawyer can help you draft a health care power of attorney and any other estate planning documents that you are ready to draft.

How to Write a Medical Power of Attorney

A health care  power of attorney is a document that legally gives someone else the right to express or withhold your consent to medical treatments when you are too ill to express your consent or lack thereof.  The person authorized to speak on your behalf is called your healthcare surrogate or healthcare proxy.  Your health care  power of attorney is only legally valid if, when you sign it, you are healthy enough to understand it.  It is up to you to decide how much detail to include about which medical treatments you want your healthcare surrogate to authorize, but the more specific you are, the better.

You must sign your health care  power of attorney in the presence of two witnesses.  They must be adults whom the court has not declared incompetent to enter into legally binding agreements.  It is better if the healthcare surrogate named in the medical power of attorney is not one of the witnesses.  Unlike a financial power of attorney, you do not have to get a medical power of attorney notarized.  You can find medical power of attorney forms online and fill them out, but it is better if you have a lawyer draft the medical power of attorney document after a long discussion about your healthcare and end-of-life care wishes.

If You Have a Medical Power of Attorney, Everything Else Can Wait

If you have a health care  power of attorney but no other estate planning documents, you have avoided the worst-case scenario.  If you do not write a will, your closest surviving relatives will inherit your estate.  Assuming that you don’t care about money but do care about family harmony, your next steps should be to have a  financial power of attorney also known as a durable power of attorney,  to prevent conflicts over your financial decisions in the event of your serious illness. You should also buy hybrid life insurance or long-term care insurance so that your family does not suffer financial hardship paying for your nursing home care.

Contact a Florida Estate Planning Attorney About Starting Slow With Your Estate Plan

An estate planning attorney can help you take baby steps toward a thorough estate plan.  Contact The Law Office of Laurie R. Chane in Dade City, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

freewill.com/learn/guide-to-making-a-florida-power-of-attorney#:~:text=Florida%20power%20of%20attorney%20requirements,-To%20make%20a&text=Be%20%E2%80%9Cof%20sound%20mind%2C%E2%80%9D,POAs%20created%20in%20another%20state.