Living Wills

A Durable Financial Power of Attorney is a legal document in which you, as the Principal, appoint an agent, typically your spouse or child, to make financial decisions and manage your financial affairs “if and when” you are unable to. Your inability to manage your financial affairs is typically determined by your personal physician.

A Durable Healthcare Power of Attorney is a legal document in which you, as the Principal, appoint an agent, typically your spouse or child, to make healthcare decisions and manage your healthcare issues “if and when” you are unable to. Your inability to make healthcare decisions is typically determined by your personal physician.

A Living Will Declaration is a legal document which states that if I am in a permanent vegetative state or I have an irreversible or incurrable condition that will cause my death within a relatively short time, typically you are terminally ill and the doctors have done all they can, then do not use extraordinary life saving procedures to artificially extend my life. “Allow me do die with dignity.”

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 which was passed by Congress in order to protect your private medical information from being disclosed to anyone without your express written consent. This law prevents your doctors and nurses from telling anyone, even your spouse and children, anything about you or your medical condition. Because the fines, penalties and prison terms which can be assessed for violations of this law are so severe, healthcare professions such a nursing homes have been known to refuse to tell loved ones when their spouse or parent have been rushed to the hospital due to a medical emergency. Everyone should have a HIPAA Authorization which lists their spouse and all children as authorized recipients of privileged healthcare information so your doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals can freely talk to them about your medical condition.

If Mom is incompetent but she has a Durable Power of Attorney things can be relatively simple. I will simply explain to the spouse or child who is the agent which legal documents should be presented to various banks, brokers and medical institutions as well as doctors and hospitals and how to use these legal documents to accomplish the things that need to be done for Mom. However, if Mom doesn’t have these documents then we probably are looking at getting a guardianship which will take 1 to 3 months and cost $1500 to $2000.

Ultimately Mom’s wishes probably will not be followed as if she has the proper legal documents in place explaining in writing what she wanted done. In addition, having a Durable Power of Attorney can avoid family conflict. When a Guardianship is required the children could argue which child should be in control and appointed as Guardian. A Durable Power of Attorney spells out all these things in detail. There is no question exactly what Mom wanted done is she were not able to make her own decisions.