Most people recognize the importance of creating a comprehensive estate plan, but have you thought about incapacity? If you don’t have a plan for what happens to your care if you become unable to manage it on your own, this will fall to the courts and could add stress and delays for your family members.
With the advancement in medical science and health care, our overall life expectancies have increased, but aging comes with a variety of different kinds of medical problems, such as cognitive disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
This can leave you in a position where it is impossible to manage your assets or financial investments. Planning for the possibility of incapacitation can make it that much easier for your chosen loved ones to take action if and when necessary.
There are several different ways that you can approach incapacitation planning, including:
- Joint ownership of certain accounts.
- Appointing someone through a power of attorney to manage your assets in the event of incapacitation.
- Creating a private trust in which your assets are retitled into the name of the trust.
- Preparing a will early on prior to the onset of any cognitive issues that could leave your will open to a future challenge.
Each of these should be evaluated carefully to determine if it makes sense in your estate plan. The good news is that you don’t have to work through this process on your own, since finding a talented Pasadena estate planning lawyer can cut down on some of the work and help you determine what is best suited to your individual goals.
With many different facets of this process, you deserve to have an experience and a qualified lawyer. guide you through the next steps. Set aside time to meet with an experienced and dedicated lawyer now.
