Legal planning for seniors can be divided into two categories: health care planning and financial planning. Let’s begin our discussion with planning for health care decision-making, something that should be completed by all adults, and especially seniors.
If an adult becomes ill or disabled, they will need someone trusted to communicate their wishes regarding the care they will receive. The goal of health care planning for your elderly parents is to make sure that they will get the care that they want in the setting that they want, no more and no less, and to decide who will express their choices if they’re unable to do so.
A health care power of attorney, part of an Advance Directive, names the person or persons who can talk to your parents’ doctors if they are incapacitated, and who can give consent to specific medical treatments or procedures. In this day of advanced medical technology, more and more life-sustaining procedures have become available. Many people do not want their life to be artificially continued when their quality of life is poor, and there is no chance of improvement. Advance Directives and Health Care Powers of Attorney, similar to a Living Will, help to ensure that a person’s wishes about the care they receive are honored, and make it easier for their loved ones to know that they are making the right decisions for them when that time comes. When people do not have a health care power of attorney, and are unable to communicate or make decisions about their well-being, state regulations may assign this responsibility to the closest relative, or the court may appoint a Guardianship of the Person.
Guardianship is always an action of “last resort,” as it is intrusive, costly and time-consuming. It often requires the involvement of government Adult Protective Services. A guardianship proceeding can be a distressing experience, as it requires the person to be declared incompetent. This is why we emphasize that everyone should create Powers of Attorney to avoid the risk of a guardianship later on. Although regulations for Advance Directives differ across states, the website www.agingwithdignity.org provides a ‘Five Wishes ‘model for a legal document which helps people express in their own words their wishes for the kind of care they want in advance of a serious illness.