Does Your Executor Know What to Do?

Don't leave a mess for your executor clean up. There are ways to make your executor's job easier.
Don’t leave a mess for your executor clean up. There are ways to make your executor’s job easier.

Next Avenue’s recent article entitled “Is Your Estate as Planned As You Think?” explains that when you pass away your executor will have many tasks to perform when settling your estate.

It’s helpful to add clarity and lessen the burden of your executor’s work in advance. Look at this list of things to make sure your estate is as planned as you think it is:

Is your will current? If you’ve written your will, how long has it been since you drafted it? Have there been any major changes in your life since that time? If so, it’s likely time to update it. Review your will to make certain that it’s an accurate representation of your assets and your wishes now.

Is your will detailed? Yes, you’ve addressed the big stuff, but what about smaller items with sentimental value? You should list who gets what, to avoid fighting, especially if the executor is one of your beneficiaries.

Do you have a way to distribute your other personal items? You should determine how your family will divide up the possessions not explicitly listed in your will, such as the lawnmower, dishes and photographs. All of it will need to be either distributed by the executor to one of your beneficiaries, donated, or sold.

Are your financial affairs organized? Your executor will need to know if you have any recurring payments, as well as your account number, and online passwords. Create a list of regular monthly bills, along with your account numbers and access codes to simplify your executor’s job.

You will also need to let the executor know about any automatic deductions or charges on your credit card, internet-based subscriptions, club memberships, recurring charitable donations and automatic utility payments.

Making your wishes clear for your executor can help ensure that there’s less stress and an easy distribution of your assets.

Your estate planning attorney can help you address these issues to make things easier for your executor and your family. And while speaking with your estate planning attorney, ask about advance medical directives such as a medical power of attorney, a living will, a HIPAA waiver and whether you should have a trust.

For more information on wills see https://galligan-law.com/understanding-why-a-will-is-important/.

Reference: Next Avenue (Feb. 25, 2020) “Is Your Estate as Planned As You Think?”

 

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COVID-19 UPDATE: You Need a Medical Power of Attorney Now

Due to the coronavirus, now more than ever it’s important to have a medical power of attorney naming agents to make medical decisions for you if you cannot.

If you have not yet named someone with Medical Power of Attorney,  get this crucial planning in place now.  As Claire Horner and I spoke about in this Facebook Live video, https://www.facebook.com/galliganlawfirm/videos/1442796115909715/, it is very important to create this document, now more than ever with the coronavirus, and it can be prepared quickly and easily.

What is a Medical Power of Attorney?

A medical power of attorney is a legal document you use to give someone else authority to make medical decisions for you when you can no longer make them yourself.  This person, also known as an agent, can only exercise this power if your doctor says you are unable to make key decisions yourself.

Other Terms for Medical Power of Attorney

Depending on the state where you live, the medical power of attorney may be called something else. You may have seen this referred to as a health care power of attorney, an advance directive, advance health care directive, a durable power of attorney for health care, etc. There are many variations, but they all mean fundamentally the same thing.  In some states, your preferences are worked into the document itself, such as your preferences for surgeries, pain treatment, religious preferences and so on.  Texas tends not to include wishes within the document, so it is very important to discuss your medical wishes and preferences with your agent.

Be aware that each state has their own laws about medical powers of attorney, so it’s important to work with a qualified estate planning attorney to ensure your decisions will be enforced through legally binding documents. Also, some states may not honor documents from other states (Texas often does this), so even if you made these decisions and created documents in another state, it’s wise to review with an estate attorney to ensure they are legally valid in your state now.  If there are any doubts, a new medical power of attorney can be prepared quickly.

What Can My Medical Agent Do for Me?

Some of the things a medical power of attorney authorizes your agent to decide for you:

  • Which doctors or facilities to work with and whether to change
  • Give consent for additional testing or treatment
  • How aggressively to treat
  • Give consent to surgeries, medications and so on

I won’t fully discuss it here as I wanted to focus on the most basic medical decision-making document, but there are other similar documents that are also very important, such as a living will which directs end-of-life decisions and a HIPAA release which will facilitate your agent receiving information to make these decisions.  See here for a fuller discussion of the other documents.  https://galligan-law.com/making-end-of-life-decisions-part-of-your-estate-plan/

We are ready to help walk you through these decisions and prepare a medical power of attorney naming the agent who you trust to make these decisions for you. We are currently offering no-contact initial conferences remotely if you prefer and can arrange for remote document signings. Contact our office today and let us help you make the right choices for yourself and your loved ones.

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Making End of Life Decisions Part of your Estate Plan

End of life decisions are an important part of your estate plan.

If your end of life decisions are important to you, there are a handful of documents that are typically created during the process of developing an estate plan that can be used to achieve this goal, says the article “Choosing a natural end” from The Dallas Morning News.

The four documents are the Medical Power of Attorney, the Directive to Physicians, the Out-of-Hospital Do-Not-Resuscitate, and the In-Hospital Do-Not-Resuscitate. Note that every state has slightly different estate planning laws. Therefore, you will want to speak with an experienced estate planning attorney in your state. If you spend a lot of time in another state, you may need to have a duplicate set of documents created. Your estate planning attorney will be able to help.  In Texas, attorneys often prepare the Medical Power of Attorney and Directive to Physicians, and Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders are prepared by medical systems.  See Mary’s excellent blog for further background https://galligan-law.com/living-wills-and-medical-powers-of-attorney-why-they-are-important/.

For the Medical Power of Attorney, you are appointing an agent to make health care decisions if you cannot. This may include turning off any life-support systems, refusing life-sustaining treatment and other end of life decisions. Talk with the person you want to take on this role and make sure they understand your wishes and are willing and able to carry them out.  You have the right to change your agent at any time.

The Directive to Physicians, which is basically the Living Will of Texas, is a way for you to let physicians know what you want for comfort care and any life-sustaining treatment in the event you receive a diagnosis of a terminal or irreversible health condition. You aren’t required to have this, but it is a good way to convey your wishes. The directive does not always have to be the one created by the facility where you are being treated, and it may be customized to your wishes, as long as they are within the bounds of law. Many people will execute a basic directive with their estate planning documents, and then have a more detailed directive created when they have a health crisis.  It and the Medical Power of Attorney serve to nominate and provide guidance to your healthcare decision-maker on end of life decisions.

The Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) forms come in two different forms in most states. Unlike the Directive to Physicians, the DNR must be signed by your attending physician. The Out-of-Hospital DNR is a legally binding order that documents your wishes to health care professionals acting outside of a hospital setting not to initiate or continue CPR, advanced airway management, artificial ventilation, defibrillation or transcutaneous cardiac pacing. You need to sign this form, but if you are not competent to do so, a proxy or health care agent can sign it.

The In-Hospital DNR instructs a health care professional not to attempt CPR, if your breathing or heart stops. It is issued in a health care facility or hospital and does not require your signature. However, the physician does have to inform you or make a good faith effort to inform a proxy or agent of the order.

If you have specific wishes for your end of life decisions, especially if you want a natural end, speak with your estate planning attorney about how to legally prepare to protect your wishes.

Reference: The Dallas Morning News (Jan. 12, 2020) “Choosing a natural end”

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