COVID-19 Preparations: Make Sure Your Healthcare Directive Is Current

While it is the fervent hope of individuals,
families, governments and countries that you won’t become so ill with COVID-19
that your Advance Healthcare Directive (in some states known as a Healthcare
Power of Attorney or Living Will) may need to come into effect — having an up-to-date Advance Healthcare
Directive is an important part of individual pandemic planning.

Adults of all ages should have a witnessed or
notarized Advance Healthcare Care Directive, and it is particularly important
for those at high-risk from COVID-19.

What is an Advance
Healthcare Directive and what does it allow to be carried out?

The person (or persons) named in your Advance Healthcare
Directive is allowed to make medical decisions for you if you are not able mentally
or physically to make your own healthcare decisions such as whether to have emergency
surgery.

Do think carefully who those people are (reviewing
these people every few years is a good idea). You may not want to ask people who find it difficult to make decisions of
any kind. Nor do you want to ask people who live elsewhere and who would have
difficulty with long-distance consultations.

CONSULT YOUR STATE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OR YOUR OWN
ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEY TO OBTAIN A LEGAL ADVANCE HEALTHCARE DIRECTIVE.

Other
documents to consider especially during a global pandemic:

Older
people especially should consider whether they want a DO NOT RESUSCIATE order in their medical records.Consider
executing a Power of Attorney for
someone else to handle your financial affairs if you are incapacitated by
illness.

Self-Isolating:
Good Time to Consider Your Long-Term Estate Planning

There is nothing like a global pandemic to remind
us all that so many conditions are out of our control. The one thing we can do
is prepare for the end of our lives so that our ideas, assets and love are
passed on to the next generations as seamlessly as a well-executed estate plan
can provide.

Read this article why a living trust is needed in addition to a will.

And read these other articles on estate planning including business succession.

In the meantime, make sure you have an up-to-date Advance Healthcare Directive that we all hope ends up NOT having to be used!