There Is More To Estate Planning Than A Will

While having a will is key in estate planning, people often make the mistake of thinking that its the only estate planning document they need.

A Forbes article, The Biggest Estate Planning Mistake People Make points out that a “will has little or nothing to do with you, It’s all about planning for someone else.” 

            So, what is estate planning?        

To guarantee that you are well-covered legally, financially and medically even when you are debilitated and cannot decide for yourself, make sure to complete the following five documents in your estate plan: 

Also known as Health Care Power of Attorney or Medical Power of Attorney, the Advanced Health Care Directive is one of the two legal documents every adult needs. This document assures you that your chosen and trusted health care agent will be able to make health care decisions for you when you are unable to do so for yourself. 

A Living Will contains your instructions on what actions should be taken if you are permanently unconscious or terminally ill. A Living Will is often signed by persons who do not want the burden of deciding whether to remove life support to be placed on the shoulders of a loved one.

A Durable Power of Attorney (often called a Financial Power of Attorney), on the other hand, will cover other practical and financial obligations you are incapable of handling. Again, your chosen and trusted agent will make decisions and do thing on your behalf, which includes but are not limited to: payment of bills, taking care of investments and overall financial management. 

A Revocable Living Trust “acts like a super power of attorney,” according to Brad Wiewel. It reduces the possibility of having problems with financial institutions accepting your Durable Power of Attorney and gives you many other benefits. One main advantage of having a revocable living trust is that assets transferred to the trust avoid probate at death, which keeps details of your estate private and often reduces the cost and time of administration after your death.

If you are a long-time reader of my blogs, you might remember me enumerating the benefits of a revocable living trust when I discussed the flexibility of living trusts.

You must take note though, that even with a living trust, you will still need a Durable Power of Attorney “to identify the person you want to manage your retirement accounts, like your 401(k) and your IRAs,” according to the Forbes article.

A HIPAA Medical Authorization ensures that the people you name are legally entitled to obtain your protected health information. In other words, it allows your loved ones to be informed of your condition if you have a medical emergency or condition that prevents you from communicating with them directly.

If you want want to donate your organs when you die, you need to complete an Organ Donor Registry form. You should also notify the BMV when renewing your driver's license and inform your health care agent. To join the organ donor registry, visit Donate Life Ohio.

Ready to get your estate planning taken care of? Call me at 614.453.5208 to set up a free 1-hour initial consultation.

Russell C. Golowin helps clients create wills, trusts powers of attorney, HIPAA Medical Authorizations and other estate planning documents in the central Ohio area. Visit his website for more information on estate planning in Columbus, Ohio. 

Two Legal Documents Every Adult Needs No Matter The Size of Your Bank Account

As of your 18th birthday, you became an adult in the eyes of the law.

Even though your kids may still act like teenagers (or you may feel like one), in the eyes of the government, turning 18 means you need to have legal documents in place in case of an accident.

Every adult should have in place an Advance Health Care Directive and a Financial Durable Power of Attorney. Estate planning is not just for rich people. These legal documents are important for everyone who loves their family.

If you don’t have these legal documents in place and something scary happens, it will make life a whole lot more difficult for the people you love.

An Advance Health Care Directive (also known as a Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will) does two things: first, it names the person you want making health care decisions for you if you cannot make them for yourself and second, it lets that person know how you want them to be made.

This is important because if you are in the hospital and cannot communicate, you need someone to make decisions for you and you want them to make those decisions as you would want them made, without question.

If you don’t have this document in place, it could create a huge rift among your family as the people you love fight about what you would have wanted.

The important thing in this document is that the whoever you name is also given authority under the new (within the past three years) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (aka HIPAA).

If your health care agent (the person named in your Advance Health Care Directive) is not designated as your agent under HIPAA, they will not be able to look at your medical records, which makes it mighty hard for them to make health care decisions for you.

By the way, if you have college age kids going off to college, you’ll want to get this in place for your kid. Otherwise, when you call the school nurse to discuss your child’s illness, you may find no one can or will talk with you because they would violate HIPAA if they did.

We get frantic calls in our office at least once or twice each fall from parents looking for legal documents for their college-age kid for just this reason.

The second legal document you absolutely need to have in place as an adult is a Durable Power of Attorney. This document names someone to make financial and legal decisions for you if you can’t make them for yourself.

Beware of the one-page standard durable power of attorney you find on the internet where you just check off a list of applicable powers. I’ve seen family members try to use those to access their loved ones assets and then not be able to because the form was too generic.

It’s important for your kids going off to college to have this in place too because if they are in an accident you are going to need to take over paying the bills and get access to bank accounts and make legal decisions. But, you will have to go through a long and expensive court process if there’s not a signed Durable Power of Attorney in place.

It’s the same for you too. If you are in an accident, and you don’t have a Durable Power of Attorney in place,it will be difficult for your family to deal with things on your behalf.

So, regardless of the amount of money you have in the bank, get your Advance Health Care Directive (or living will) and your Durable Power of Attorney in place at the bare minimum. Oh, and of course, if you have kids under 18 at home, get your comprehensive Kids Protection Plan in place too.

None of this has to do with money. It has to do with making life as easy as possible for the people you love. Contact Golowin Legal today to protect your loved ones.

SOURCE FOR POST: Family Wealth Matters by Alexis Martin Neely