As adults, most of us do not always think about our own estate planning than we should. With this in mind, helping aging parents with estate planning is important to your parents and also to you. Your aging parents will one day need your help, and things will go better if there are certain tools in their estate plan giving you the necessary authority to help.
Estate planning involves creating legal documents — wills, trusts, powers of attorney, etc — that direct how your assets will be handled after you no longer can manage them yourself.
If you have aging parents who live alone or with limited support from friends and family members, there is a good chance that they will need help managing their affairs. By making sure as early as possible, you can help ensure that when the time comes, you will be able to help them should they become incapacitated. You can also help them understand how making end of life documents will provide clear instructions and limit confusion or arguments among children or other loved ones.
What is Estate Planning?
Estate planning is the process of creating a comprehensive plan to protect your assets, provide for loved ones in the event of your death and plan for incapacity. An estate plan includes important documents like a will, power of attorney, and health care directive. An estate planning attorney should have the expertise to guide you on what should be included in a plan.
What Happens After a Loved One Dies Without an Estate Plan?
If an elderly parent does not have an estate plan, it can cause a number of problems, including:
● The elderly parent may not have a will which requires the Court to get involved and try to figure out what to do with assets. This process is time consuming and cause problems for those left behind upon your death.
● If the parent becomes incapacitated, there may be no one designated to make financial and/or healthcare decisions on their behalf. With the proper documents, your parent can name an agent to make sure bills are paid, taxes are filed, and deal with other financial concerns. They can also articulate what they want healthcare wise should they fall ill or be injured, or lose their mental faculties.
● Without a will or trust in place, the distribution of the parent’s assets may not be in accordance with their wishes.
● The estate may be subject to probate, which can be a lengthy and expensive process.
Overall, it is best for elderly parents to have an estate plan in place to avoid these potential problems.
How to Begin Estate Planning for Aging Parents
Estate planning is important for everyone, but it becomes increasingly critical as we age. If you have elderly parents, help them to begin by first locating a reputable estate planning attorney. An estate planning attorney will help your parents make a plan and are comfortable having this conversation about their inevitable passing. This conversation will include what to do with their assets when they die. They will talk about what incapacity is and designating who do they want to make decisions on their behalf if they become incapacitated.
Financial Power of Attorney
A financial power of attorney (POA)is a legal document that gives someone else (agent) the authority to handle your parents’ financial affairs. It allows your parents to appoint someone they trust to manage their finances to essentially transfer the authority of assets including the management, investment, or spending of assets owned individually or in a joint account to their trusted agent. More often than not, they will select a trusted adult child with this. Imagine if your elderly father gets very ill and your elderly mother does not know enough about the household finances. As their POA agent you can step in, show banks or other financial institutions that you have the legal authority to access accounts, and make sure bills are paid, taxes are filed, etc. so your parents do not run into problems.
Healthcare Directives
Healthcare Directives are legal documents to address various issues related to end of like and medical care in the event that they are unable to communicate those wishes themselves. Directives include:
- Healthcare power of attorney — An order that lets you choose another individual to make health care decisions for you in the future
- Living will — A document that tells your health care professionals and others if you want death-delaying procedures when facing a terminal condition particularly if you are unable to state your wishes.
- Mental health treatment preference declaration — A declaration that states whether you want to receive electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) or psychotropic medicine when you have a mental illness (and are unable to make these decisions for yourself).
- Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) and Practitioner Orders For Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) — These advanced directives say that healthcare professionals cannot use CPR if your heart and/or breathing stops.
As you can see, healthcare directives are valuable tools in estate planning, as it can help to ensure that an individual’s wishes are carried out even if they are unable to communicate them at the time. This can provide peace of mind for the individual and their loved ones, knowing their wishes will be respected.
Contact a Chicago Estate Planning Attorney Today
Death is never an easy topic to discuss, but it’s important to have these conversations with your elderly parents now. You may be happily surprised that they welcome your proactive assistance. Estate planning can provide peace of mind for both you and your parents, knowing that their wishes will be carried out no matter what happens.
Estate planning can be complex, so it’s often helpful to work with an experienced estate planning lawyer. They can help you navigate the process and ensure that all of your bases are covered. Contact James C. Provenza & Associates, P.C. at (847) 729-3939 or by filling out our online form.
