“Getting your affairs in order” often involves more than just estate planning and wills. Planning for your golden years involves making sure that your loved ones will get what you want them to when you pass, but also that you get what you need before then.
Living wills and other advance directives can help you make your wants known when it comes to extraordinary measures and end-of-life care. On top of that, having a power of attorney in place – both generally and for healthcare – can ensure that your finances are taken care of and that your health decisions are enforced by someone you trust. For help with all of these issues, plus wills and trusts, always work with a lawyer.
Call Flake & Flake’s elder law attorneys at (702) 829-5731 for a free case evaluation today.
What Documents Do You Need as You Get Older?
When we get on in years, there are special documents and legal instruments we should have in place to make sure that our wishes are carried out, both while we are still alive and after we pass.
Living Wills
A living will explains what healthcare measures you want to take if your health declines drastically. For example, if you can no longer recognize your loved ones and respond to your surroundings, you might want to draw the line there and say no further extraordinary measures are needed.
Getting this in writing in a living will helps make your wishes known. However, living wills, by themselves, might not be enough.
Durable Medical Power of Attorney
A durable medical power of attorney document allows you to assign someone – or a group of loved ones – to make healthcare decisions for you. This prevents situations where a doctor might not trust your living will, and it allows your family to make health decisions in your stead.
Power of Attorney, Generally
Medical decisions are not the only decisions to make. If you are incapacitated by illness or age, then you might not be able to manage your finances, either.
Having a general power of attorney document in place allows an appointed attorney, friend, or loved one to access and manage your finances. This allows them to use your money to pay your bills, cover your healthcare costs, and otherwise make sure you are taken care of when you cannot do it yourself.
Trust Documents
Some cases also call for using a trust instead of or in addition to these other documents. This allows you to put your assets and money in a trust where you are both the beneficiary and the trustee.
If you become incapacitated, an alternate trustee – such as one of your children – can take over control of the assets and use them to help care for you. This can also work as a substitute for a will, allowing the benefits of the trust to go to your loved ones when you pass.
Will
While a trust can manage many of the assets and accounts you might have, you should still have a will, too. This will dictate how everything else that is not accounted for another way will pass to your loved ones.
Having a will allows you to bequeath your assets to the people you want them to go to, whether that means giving them to your family or perhaps to an institution you want to support. If you die without a will, you are considered “intestate,” and your assets pass to your spouse and children, parents, siblings, or other family (in that order) under Nevada’s intestacy law.
Planning for Disability and Incapacity
A major part of elder law is planning for the day when your health might stop you from being able to control your own assets and healthcare decisions. Power of attorney documents and living wills can help you ensure that your wishes are carried out.
This allows you to make decisions about the following questions, and many more:
- Who can access your accounts and make financial decisions for you?
- Who can make healthcare decisions for you?
- Do you want to give decisions to one person or require group agreement?
- Who will take care of your house, property, pets, and other needs if you cannot?
- If your health gets bad, do you want to be on a respirator or feeding tube, or do you want to pass peacefully in hospice?
- Do you want a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order in place?
Estate Planning
All property that passes to your heirs through your will is subject to public scrutiny through the “probate” process. It can also be claimed by creditors if you have outstanding debts that need to be paid.
In many cases, our elder law attorneys can help you secure assets for your loved ones by putting them into non-probate assets, e.g.,
- Pay on death accounts
- Transfer on death assets
- Joint accounts
- Other joint ownership structures (e.g., joint ownership of a house)
FAQs for Our Elder Law Attorneys in Henderson
What is a Personal Representative?
A “personal representative,” sometimes called an “executor,” is a person named in a will to take care of the deceased’s estate. The personal representative takes the will through probate, collects the person’s assets into the “estate,” distributes assets to their heirs, and pays their debts.
How Do You Make Sure Your End-of-Life Decisions Are Carried Out?
You can draw up a few different “advance directive” documents that explain your wishes clearly and give the decision-making authority to people you trust to ensure your will is carried out while you are still alive. These often involve:
- Living wills
- DNRs and other declarations about life support options
- Durable power of attorney for healthcare.
Nevada has a statewide registry with the Secretary of State where these documents can be recorded and accessed, but giving copies to your loved ones can also help facilitate emergency decisions.
How Far in Advance Should You Plan?
Thinking about the end can be hard, but it is important to make decisions and put documents in place well in advance of when you need them. It is never too early to call our lawyers and ask about what estate plans and healthcare plans make sense for your current situation.
If you have a high risk or family history of debilitating conditions like Alzheimer’s or dementia, planning before the onset of severe symptoms is always better.
Call Our Elder Law Attorneys in Henderson, NV Today
Call (702) 829-5731 to get started with a free discussion with our elder law attorneys at Flake & Flake.
