Having a Living Will and Estate Planning Attorney helps ensure you have an easy way to leave your assets after death. It also protects your family from fighting over what you want or doesn’t want to be done with your stuff. This is a critical step in ensuring your wishes are carried out, and your loved ones don’t end up with legal and emotional issues from disagreements.

Living Wills

A Living Will (also known as a health care directive or an advance directive) is a document that lets you state your wishes about medical treatment if you cannot speak for yourself. These can include whether you want to receive pain medications, avoid aggressive treatments and invasive tests or declare your desire to donate your body for medical research. A living will is a significant part of your estate planning process and is especially relevant if you consider making an estate transfer. It can be a powerful tool to protect you, your family, and your legacy, but it’s only effective if written correctly. An estate planning attorney helps clients draft and review wills, trusts, and other documents to ensure that their assets are distributed according to their preferences and values while reducing or eliminating estate and gift taxes.

Power of Attorney

A power of attorney is one of the essential tools in any estate plan. Financial and health care matters empower someone you trust to act on your behalf, such as a family member or friend. There are several types of powers of attorney available. Some are temporary, such as a springing power of attorney. Other types are durable and remain in effect until death. A durable power of attorney is an excellent choice for most people, as it will continue to operate even if you become incapacitated and lose capacity. This is especially helpful in situations where the agent will be involved in medical decisions, such as when you need to have surgery or undergo treatment that would not have been allowed without a durable power of attorney.

Health Care Directives

Health Care Directives help you and your physician plan when you cannot make decisions about your healthcare. They can cover your wishes about life-sustaining treatments (dialysis, breathing machines, and resuscitation), organ and tissue donation, and end-of-life care. A health care directive is a legal document that names someone you trust to decide for you when you cannot do so yourself. This person is your “agent” or “health care representative.” Your state may call this document a living will, health care directive, advance directive, health care decision-making form, or medical power of attorney for health care. A healthcare directive gives you peace that your family and loved ones are prepared to make the important healthcare decisions for you if you become incapacitated. It also helps reduce conflict and guilt by ensuring your wishes are carried out by those you choose to do so on your behalf.

Trusts

Trusts are a type of estate planning tool that can minimize taxes, protect assets, and spare your children from going through the often-lengthy process of probate. They also give you more control over how your assets are distributed and allow you to set conditions for distribution, such as age attainment provisions or parameters on how your assets will be used. Trust accounts can be set up to hold cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, and other property. The trustee then manages the funds in the account and distributes the assets to beneficiaries according to the terms of the trust. There are many types of trusts, each designed for a particular purpose. You can use a trust to benefit your child with special needs, keep money safe from future creditors, or help to maintain a grave site or art collection.