Incapacity Planning, Advance Directives, & Your Family

When you look at the statistics, the rapid increase in the numbers of people who are 85 years of age and older is really eye catching. The fact is that you may well live into your mid to late eighties and beyond, and this makes incapacity planning a vital component to any comprehensive preparatory strategy.

If you are a widow or a widower and you were to become incapacitated, your various family members may have different ideas about the the way that you would choose to proceed if you were capable of making your medical decisions known. This is a very important matter because first and foremost, your own preferences should be honored throughout your life. And secondly, the last things you would want to see is bickering among your loved ones with regard to your care at such a stressful and emotional time.

You can make sure that your wishes are known through the execution of a durable medical power of attorney and a living will. With a living will you expressly state which medical procedures you are willing to accept in the event of your incapacity and those that you would prefer to deny. This puts to rest any debates about whether or not you would want to be kept alive through artificial means if you were in a terminal condition.

So you are covered in cases that you did not think to address in the living will you can also include a durable medical power of attorney. With this document you empower an individual to make medical decisions in your behalf in the event of your incapacitation.

When you have these advance health care directives in place you take control of your own medical decisions come what may for your own reasons. And in addition, you spare your loves ones from having to debate these agonizing decisions among themselves.

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Alan Augulis, Estate Planning Attorney

Mr. Augulis founded his Warren, New Jersey law firm so that he could focus his practice in the areas of advanced estate planning and tax law. Mr. Augulis has invested considerable time and energy helping to educate others on the topic of estate planning and has become a sought-after speaker in the tax and estate planning arena because of his informative and entertaining seminars.

Latest posts by Alan Augulis, Estate Planning Attorney (see all)

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