If you do not have an incapacity plan in place, now is the time to act. It may seem difficult to think about preparing for an illness or injury that leaves you unable to speak for yourself. If you are young and in good health, it may also seem like you don’t really need to consider these issues yet. The reality, though, is that everyone should have a plan in place before it is too late and you are leaving yourself and your loved ones in a vulnerable position if you don’t.
1. You never know when it will be too late to act
The single biggest reason why you should make an incapacity plan today is that tomorrow it might be too late. See, no one can ever predict when a tragedy will strike and leave you unable to speak for yourself. It’s true that the risk of incapacitating illnesses goes up as you age, but young people can become suddenly very sickly as well when medical emergencies happen. Injuries that cause incapacitation also don’t discriminate by age and anyone could fall victim.
If you assume you have years to act because you’re healthy now and then something happens before you have your plans in place, there is absolutely nothing you can do. There’s no way to go back to being in good health and of sound mind so you can put the tools in place that will protect yourself and your loved ones after the disaster has happened and you can’t speak up for yourself any more.
The only way to ensure this doesn’t happen is to have your plans in place well before you think you’ll need them. Doing so can provide peace-of-mind and ensure you don’t miss the opportunity to control your own future.
2. You risk the wrong decisions being made about life-and-death issues
If there’s no incapacity plan in place, then when and if you are incapacitated, there’s a very real risk decisions will be made about your health and your property that are different than the ones you would have made.
For example, there are many life-extending treatments that can be implemented when your medical condition is dire. You could be put on a ventilator to breathe for you, for example, or you could have a feeding tube inserted to deliver nutrition when you are not able to eat as a result of your condition. You could even be kept alive in a vegetative state as a result of modern technologies.
Deciding whether you want these kinds of interventions or not requires a careful balancing of quantity of life versus quality of life. Some people would prefer to be kept alive at all costs, and no matter their condition, in hopes of finding a future cure. Others don’t want to live if they don’t have the ability to function normally and maintain their brain capacity.
Only you can decide which of these approaches is right for you. Unfortunately, if you don’t have an incapacity plan in place and these life or death choices must be made, you won’t be able to decide on them for yourselves. Your loved ones will need to make those choices for you — and they could make the wrong ones.
Your loved ones may also have to manage your property and affairs, and the wrong person might be chosen to do that, instead of someone you would have preferred to pick to take on the role.
3. You could make life difficult for your loved ones without a plan
Finally, the last huge downside of going without an incapacity plan is that your loved ones are going to be put into a position where they have to do unpleasant and uncomfortable things.
For one thing, they may have to go to court and have a guardian named to manage your assets and someone named to make medical decisions for you. This can take precious time as doctors wait to make final decisions on your long-term care. Your loved ones might disagree about what you would have wanted, with some voting to keep you alive by any means and others preferring to avoid extraordinary measures, and this could lead to family conflict that is expensive and painful to resolve in court.
Your loved ones may also feel pressured and guilty that they have to make life and death decisions for you, especially if they do not know what your preferences would have been. You don’t want to put your spouse or children or other close family members in a situation where they have to decide to turn off the machines that are keeping you alive if they don’t know whether you would have rather had your life prolonged or not. You could leave them facing a lifetime of uncertainty and guilt.
For all of these reasons, you cannot afford to wait to make an incapacity plan. You owe it to yourself and to the people that you care about to use the right legal tools today to make your wishes known.
Edwards Law Firm can help you create an incapacity plan. Give us a call today at 904.672.7600 to speak with an estate planning attorney serving Jacksonville and the surrounding areas of Northeast Florida that can work with you to make a comprehensive incapacity plan that addresses the issues that matter if the worst occurs.
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