Infoalmanac

Do I Need a Power of Attorney?

Of all the documents surrounding end of life concerns, besides a will, the power of attorney is the one you are most likely to at least heard of. A power of attorney works at any time of life and needs to be considered in your arsenal for protecting your decision-making ability.

Basically, a power of attorney gives the legal right for someone to do business on your behalf, in your name, signing legally for you. This document, governed by each state's law, can be temporary for one occurrence, such as someone signing a real estate transaction in your place in a distant city. Or, it can be permanent, allowing that person to do business for you in any and all situations.

A power of attorney is durable. This durability means that it continues in the case of your disability or inability to communicate. It ends with your death when your will enforces your final wishes and distribution of your assets.

Does this mean a person with the power of attorney has the right to make decisions for you?

Guardianship of Someone You Love

Becoming a guardian for one you love requires you to put aside tearing emotions and take a cold hard look at the situation. Worsening Alzheimer's is a clear-cut case. A slow decline of an aged parent is quite another.

At some point, your mother or father may not be taking care of her or himself in a reasonable fashion: not eating or sleeping, not taking care of their own finances, or, even worse, making apparently rational choices which may harm them physically or financially.

These legal documents, living wills, powers of attorney both durable and medical and wills, do not address this problem.

Your Medical Power of Attorney

In the process of "getting your papers in order", you took care of a living will, that document which directs how you want to be cared for when you cannot say so for yourself. Now, you need a medical power of attorney. This confers the decision-making rights to someone else who stands in your place. That person, armed with your living will, which states your wishes, and a medical power of attorney can deal with any decisions when you are too sick to do it for yourself.

A medical power of attorney does not do some things. It does not give the right to have you committed to a mental institution. It use cannot force you

Glossary for Living Wills and End of Life Concerns

When it comes to severe medical situations and end of life decisions, there's a lot of jargon floating around. A big part of what you need to know is buried in the vocabulary. You may not be writing or communicating what you hope. Cruise through these explanations to help yourself along.

Any determination of what's legal is made by your state. Check with your lawyer to make sure you've got it right for where you live.

Advance Directive: Legal document in which you tell (direct) others in your health care preferences when you are too sick to say so yourself. This is about what you want and prevents others from making decisions, contrary to your wishes, for you. You can revoke it at any time being sure to notify all to whom you have given it--doctors, hospitals, and so on. Caring Connections has state-specific advance directive forms.

Your Living Will: The Right to Live, The Right to Die

A living will is a form of advance healthcare directive. These directives are your voice when you are too sick to speak for yourself. In them, you can specify what direction your medical care is to take when your health takes a turn for the very worst.

Although valid nationwide, each state may vary in the way it prefers the living will to be worded. And, while legal help is not absolutely necessary, it is a good idea to become informed and get some good advice.

Living wills, in particular, come into play during terminal illnesses. They can direct how much, if any, intervention is to be taken to prolong your life when death is imminent.

Some people prefer for all measures to be taken for as long as possible. This includes artificial ventilation, feeding tubes and other means to sustain life when you cannot do it for yourself. A living will can guide this.

Others abhor the idea of becoming a "vegetable." This means experiencing periods of wakefulness and sleep without response to the outside world. They could use a living will to allow few, if any measures, to be taken.

Your Living Will for Peace of Mind Now, Quality Care Later

After reading the past two posts on wills, one reader contacted me. She and her sister have been caring for their father for several years. Following Hurricane Rita, which passed through their hometown, they could no longer do it all themselves.

Their father was placed in a nursing home. The older sister now visits several hours daily supervising his care. She also spends hours every week taking care of his affairs.

She spoke of their difficulties sorting out various legalities with nursing home and government officials. These next few articles will deal with those questions that they ran into.

You see, wills, provide direction for the distribution of your possessions. Further, they can detail how businesses are passed and the family is cared for. But, wills do not cover every eventuality.

Get Help with Your Will

While you can modify a will as needed, it is most important to get one done before it is too late. You have the right to distribute your property to any persons you choose without another's permission.

However, to be certain your assets are disbursed the way you want, you have to have a will. And, that will must meet legal requirements, leaving no loopholes.

It is a fact that all die. Thinking about that, as hard as it is, making plans and leaving definite instructions in the form of a properly prepared will frees you to live your life knowing those details are taken care of.

Write Your Will Now

Yesterday was the perfect day to write a will; today is the next best choice. Dealing as it does with sad thoughts and fears, it is no wonder that you may want to put it off. But, if you look at the reasons for writing your will now, you'll delay no longer.

If you want to make your own decisions about your final arrangements, the dispostion of your property, the care of your family, your will must be drawn up while you're in relatively decent health able to think clearly.

• With a will, you decide on who may care for your minor children.  Without one, the state decides who gets custody.  That choice will be made dispassionately sometime after your death with your children left in limbo in the meantime. Not making arrangements with someone you and they trust and love may leave your children feeling abandoned and uncared for. It is an abandonment that can last the rest of their lives.