Planning for An Emergency: Who Is Your Legal Loved One?

February can be a stressful month. You’ve just come through a string of holidays that often require ample family time, emotional energy, and sometimes expose truths that catch us all off guard.

While family law attorneys are often hit with a barrage of calls from people who found texts and gifts a spouse sent to someone other than their family, our estate attorneys are often getting a lot of different types of calls.

All that time with family sometimes gives us the perspective to notice important family issues that need to be dealt with. In my family, a loved one fell over the holidays, had to be taken to a hospital, and couldn’t return home due to hoarding issues in her home. We were a bit blindsided by all of this. Being the attorney in my family, immediately, I was left with a pit in my stomach, hoping that she had an Advance Directive and Power of Attorney.

As we are all living longer, we are all likely going to experience an emergency where we are incapacitated. Such simple documents can really be crucial in an emergency.

Photo Credit: David Dvořáček

So, what are they, and what do they do?

An Advance Directive (also known as a Medical Directive, or Medical Power of Attorney) is a legal document that allows someone to make medical decisions on your behalf and allows you to specify certain decisions you want made. Many of you are likely familiar and have signed a form directive at a hospital prior to admission. Having a medical directive prepared before an emergency means that if something should happen and you are incapacitated, even for a short period, the person you trust the most to make those decisions for you can make those decisions. It is clear who you want that person to be and what specific decisions you want to be made.

A Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows someone to handle your business and financial affairs in the same way that you can do personally. It can be a general or specific grant of authority. Generally, the power can be pretty broad; they can pay bills, hire service providers, and have a host of other powers which you might need if you cannot handle your affairs for a short or extended period. It might surprise you to know that even if you are married, your spouse is not your agent, and you don’t have the authority to act, sell, or pledge your spouse’s property. And if you don’t have a power of attorney, someone has to go to court and file for a conservatorship, which is time-consuming, expensive, and stressful in the middle of an emergency. In our family situation, these documents allowed us to make sure that our loved one had decisions made in the way she would want while she was not able to, that she was getting proper medical care, to pay bills, and get service providers to the home. Without these documents, each one of these steps would have been immensely more complicated.

So perhaps this February, think about who your legal loved one is - who you want to make decisions for you in the case of an emergency and think about getting an Advance Directive and Power of Attorney drafted that reflects your wishes. Having these documents protects you and your loved ones in the case of an emergency and is exponentially cheaper and faster than having the court take action. If you would like to speak to us more about these issues, please reach out and schedule a consult with our estate planning attorneys, Lonnie Rich and Rachel Baer. They would be happy to answer your questions and assist you.