An estate planning attorney can do many things for you. He or she can of course create a will for you. A will is usually the most important part of someone’s estate plan. This document allows you to direct where all of your probate assets should go upon your passing. Even if you already have or end up getting a living trust to handle the majority of your assets, you should still have a will to take care of any assets that aren’t held by the trust and aren’t part of any of your other non-probate assets. Otherwise, these assets will have to go through the probate process in a much more time consuming and expensive way and those assets may not go to the people you wanted them to go to.
Image by Mario Renteria from Pixabay
But having a will and possibly even a trust is only part of what an estate planning attorney can do for you. A will basically helps you take care of things upon your death. But an estate planning attorney can also help you take care of your affairs while you are still alive. A few of the other most important documents an estate planning attorney can create for you are a power of attorney, a medical power of attorney, a living will, and a HIPAA authorization. These powerful documents help you manage your financial and personal affairs while you are still alive, and they should not be overlooked.
A power of attorney lets you choose someone to make financial decisions for you. You can choose to let this person have these powers at any time or only when/if you are incapacitated (eg. in a coma, experiencing dementia, etc.). If you don’t have a power of attorney and you were to become incapacitated, then there would need to be a guardianship proceeding in a courtroom to have someone named as your guardian. These proceedings can be time consuming and expensive.
A medical power of attorney lets you choose someone to make medical decisions for you if you become so badly sick or injured that you cannot make them for yourself. Accidents and sickness do unfortunately happen, so you should be prepared accordingly.
A living will lets you tell your doctors and family members ahead of time how you want to be treated if you were to become incapacitated while diagnosed with a terminal illness or irreversible condition. This is a very personal choice for anyone, and it’s best to have this choice spelled out in a legal document.
A HIPAA authorization let’s you name a person or multiple people who can talk to your healthcare providers and insurance companies about your personal health care information. By law these providers and companies aren’t supposed to share any of your information without your official approval. Oftentimes these providers and companies will have their own authorization forms for you to fill out, but having your own HIPAA authorization form is a great back up to have just in case.
Bottom line, everyone should have these five documents at a minimum (will, power of attorney, medical power of attorney, living will, HIPAA authorization), and an estate planning attorney can easily and relatively inexpensively provide them for you.
