Incapacity planning is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a plan you create to ensure that your wishes are carried out in the event that you’re incapacitated and unable to make your own decisions.
There’s more than one approach to incapacity planning, but it’s imperative to make decisions based on your family dynamics and future wants and needs.
A big part of incapacity planning is the creation of powers of attorney, healthcare, and emergency documents.
Let’s examine some of these documents in greater detail:
- Powers of attorney: You can create both a financial and healthcare power of attorney. With these documents, you name an agent who will make key decisions if you’re unable to do so. For example, with a financial power of attorney, you give your agent the power to pay your bills and taxes, collect income that’s due to you, and manage your investments.
- Living will: This documents allows you to outline the type of end of life medical treatment you wish to receive. Also known as an advance healthcare directive, the decisions you make can affect the treatment you receive later in life, so you shouldn’t take them lightly.
In addition to making sound decisions regarding the finer details of these documents, there’s one last question to answer: who will you put in charge?
Sticking with the example above, your financial power of attorney agent will have a variety of responsibilities if you’re incapacitated. You must trust that this person has the knowledge to make the right decisions and the willingness to do so.
Powers of attorney, healthcare and other emergency documents should be part of your estate plan. Even though it’s difficult to think about this part of your future, it’ll give you peace of mind. At The Edwards Law Firm, P.A., we can assist you with the creation and management of all these documents. Contact us online or via phone for more information on our services and how we can help.
