In the event you cannot make medical or financial decisions for yourself, you may appoint an Agent or Agents to make those decisions for you. The documents appointing these Agents are called Health Care and Financial Powers of Attorney and are usually completed in conjunction with your will and your other estate planning documents. While someone else making medical or financial decisions might feel scary to you, once you have designated your Agent(s), it is important to consider whether they know what your wishes are and where to find your legal documents if they are needed.
You may be thinking, my Agent will figure it out. However, as an estate planning and elder law attorney, I get regular calls from Agents asking whether they can meet with me to discuss their loved one’s estate planning documents and their wishes related to those documents. In reality, your Agent(s) often does not know:
- what your legal documents state,
- where your legal documents are located,
- what your medical or financial wishes are,
- what authority they have to act, or
- when they can act.
A good analogy is that most teams (at least those that want to win) do not go to a game without practice. Thus, it is a good idea for you and your Agent(s) to have “practice” before a medical or financial event happens to you.
If you want your Agent(s) to have practice, I’m offering a consultation called “Family Conversation”, led by me, with you and your Agent(s). This Family Conversation is a two-hour session to review your estate planning documents, discuss your medical and financial wishes, assess their responsibilities, offer resources to make the agent’s role manageable, and ask questions. To schedule your Family Conversation call (410) 740-3177 or email agriboff@pklaw.com.
Amy Griboff is a Member in PK Law’s Wealth Preservation Group and has over 20 years of experience in estate planning, elder law, Medicaid planning, and estate administration. Ms. Griboff focuses her estate planning services on what is best for her clients. She advises clients and their families on how to prepare for and pay for aging-in-place or downsizing to independent living, assisted living, or a nursing home. Based on the specific wishes and needs of her clients, she designs customized wills, trusts, health care powers of attorney, and financial powers of attorney and seeks guardianships in court when health care and financial decisions need to be made, but the necessary legal documents are not in place to designate someone to do so.
