Planning for Incapacity

Most people own various types of insurance - medical, home, life, liability, disability and car insurance. However, none of these insurance policies take care of one of the greatest needs of most individuals: the need to have someone take care of your affairs for you in the event of accident, sickness or advanced age.

Planning For Financial Management.

If you do nothing, and are unable to manage your affairs, someone will need to petition the Court to become your guardian. This is an invasive and intrusive method of handling your affairs and requires significant cost and delay. Among other things, it requires a finding that you are incompetent or incapacitated and a physician's examination. Your guardian must be bonded. Periodic accountings must be filed with the Court. Your affairs become public. The legal fees in a guardianship can be enormous.

An inexpensive, private, easy alternative to guardianship is to execute a durable general power of attorney. The document must be executed while you are still competent and will continue in effect after you become unable to manage your own affairs. In the power of attorney, you name an agent who is granted the authority to act on your behalf in all matters. The power of attorney may be effective either immediately after you execute it or after you are no longer able to manage your affairs. You should always only grant a power of attorney to someone you completely trust.

Note: a power of attorney which affects real estate must be recordable in the land records. If the real property is located in the District of Columbia , by statute, specific language is required in order for it to be effective.

Planning for Health Management

Most people prefer to make their own decisions rather than have them made for them. This is especially true in the health care area. You frequently read or hear of stories in which a person becomes ill and is not permitted to control health care decisions. Situations abound where:

• The medical establishment moves forward on its own momentum, ignoring your wishes and desires
• Your family makes decisions which are not what you want
• The family members who are making decisions are not those you want to be making them.

To avoid these problems to the extent possible, there are two primary types of documents:

• A Living Will; and
• A Medical or Health Care Power of Attorney