An authentic document is one that you state considers to be a legal representation of your wishes.
If you think a relative may be at risk of dementia or some other disease that will affect their reasoning ability, there are 5 legal documents you should get that relative to complete while still able to do so. Otherwise, when you become that person’s caregiver, you will need to go to court to apply for guardianship and the right to make decisions on his behalf. That court application will typically take 6 – weeks and cost you thousands of dollars. If another family member contests your application, it will only take more time and cost even more money. Don’t wait too long or it might be too late. Your relative may no longer be competent to make these critical decisions.
The 5 advance directive documents are:
State laws vary so you might want to consult an attorney when preparing these documents. And for more information about advance directives and wills versus trusts, go to www.diesmart.com.
Most people don’t like to think about what will happen if they’re in an accident or come down with a catastrophic illness. They don’t decide who they want to speak for them if they are unable to communicate their wishes themselves. They don’t tell anyone what kind of care they want….or don’t want. Once they are hurt or incapacitated, it may be too late.
These are three reasons why you need a living will and a healthcare power of attorney:
1) You name the person you want to speak for you when you can’t. It should be someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf and to carry out your wishes.
2) You decide whether you want heroic measures performed to prolong your life if there’s no chance of recovery.
3) You outline the type of treatment you want to receive.
If you don’t have these documents, a relative you don’t know very well and don’t trust or possibly the courts will speak for you and decide what will happen.
For example, they may decide to put you on life support and prolong your life even though there is no chance of recovery and you may not have wanted heroic measures. They may choose to perform a surgical procedure that you don’t want or they may decide to do something that is against your religious beliefs.
A living will enables you to describe the kind of care you want.
A healthcare power of attorney (It may be called something else in your state or it may be combined with a living will) allows you to name the person you want to be your healthcare agent who can speak for you when you can’t.
Unfortunately, a life threatening accident or a catastrophic illness can occur at any time. There’s no age that is exempt. Think of Terri Schiavo. She was a 26 year-old that had a tragic fall, went into a coma and remained alive, hooked up to a feeding tube, in a vegetative state for more than 15 years because her husband and her parents couldn’t agree on her treatment and she hadn’t legally stated her wishes.
Don’t let others decide for you. If you don’t have a living will and a healthcare power of attorney, get them drawn up right away so your wishes will be carried out and you will be able to speak for yourself….even when you really can’t.
For more information on this important subject, go to www.diesmart.com.
Huguette Clark was an heiress who died in 2011 at age 104. She left behind a $300 million estate. The bulk of the money was inherited from her father, a copper tycoon in Montana. She owned a 23-acre estate near Santa Barbara valued at $100 million, a $24 million house in Connecticut and a $100 million coop on Fifth Ave. in New York. She was a painter and a collector of rare French and Japanese dolls. She had no children, no close relatives and only limited contact with any of her distant relations.
She spent the last 20 years of her life living at Beth Israel Medical Center as a recluse, closer to her doctors and nurses than any family.
When she died, the only people who attended her burial were funeral home employees.
What did she do wrong? She left behind two wills, written just six weeks apart.
The first one left $5 million to her nurses and the balance of the estate to her distant relatives, even though 14 of the 19 involved said that they had never even met Huguette.
The second will left nothing to the relatives. It specifically said” I intentionally make no provision…for any members of my family…having had minimal contact with them over the years.” Instead, charities are the largest beneficiaries, receiving over 80% of the estate. Also named was her registered nurse, Hadassah Peri, who would receive $15.3 million after taxes, and a goddaughter who would get $7.9 million. Lesser beneficiaries included Beth Israel Medical Center, her attorney, her personal assistant, her accountant, property managers and one of her doctors.
In addition to what she was given in the will, her registered nurse received more than $31 million in gifts before Clark died and the estate administrator is asking that the $31 million be returned to the estate.
Family members are claiming that the second will was written under duress when she was mentally ill and incompetent and the victim of fraud by her nurse, attorney and accountant.
Negotiations have been going on for a few years, with 60 attorneys involved in the case. However, the chance of a settlement is not certain and a jury trial is scheduled to begin in Surrogate’s Court in Manhattan on September 17th.
Huguette Clark should have had better legal counsel when she decided what to do with her sizeable estate. She should have prepared a trust, including directions on who had the right to make decisions on her behalf when she was unable to do so. And she probably should have destroyed the first will.
It will be interesting to see what the probate court decides if a settled hasn’t been reached prior to September 17th.
For more information about Hugette Clark and her reclusive life, look for a book being released on September 10th titled “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.”
To learn more about how to plan for the end of your life, go to www.diesmart.com.
Your will and your trust are both important in determining what will happen to your assets after your death and the death of your beneficiaries.
Your trust can leave instructions on who has the right to income and the use of the property when the first beneficiary dies. There are many situations in which you may want to control the second instance of inheritance: