Getting Your Legal Affairs in Order
By Nancy R. Larson, Attorney
The
beginning of the New Year is a good time to get your legal affairs in
order. As you gather information for tax
preparation, consider reviewing your estate plan. Estate planning is simply planning ahead to
answer the question “what will happen to my assets if I become disabled or when
I die?” An estate plan usually consists
of documents that include health care power of attorney a property power of
attorney a last will and testament and sometimes a trust.
To get started you should make a list of your assets, how
they are held, and their approximate value.
For the purposes of this article we will only address the importance of
planning for managing your finances in the event you become disabled.
If
you become disabled, and have not planned ahead, someone will have to make
decisions for you, but who will it be?
Without a set of proper instructions, that would be provided in a
Durable Property Power of Attorney (for financial matters), it is not clear who
you want to make decisions or what kind of decisions you want made.
Be
sure to communicate with the person you have named as your decision maker (your
“Agent”) of your wishes in a written and correctly executed Power of
Attorney. The Power of Attorney document
is a set of instructions that the Agent can use to act for you if you are not
able to act for yourself during a time of either temporary or permanent
disability. You may be very specific in
the authority you grant to your Agent, eliminating or adding authorizations
routinely given in an Illinois Statutory Form Power of Attorney. It is of utmost importance that you can trust
your decision maker (Agent) to be honest and to act according to your best
interests and highest good.
Planning
for your disability is as important, if not more important than planning for
your death. If you have made no plans,
and your disability is ongoing, it is likely the Probate Court will appoint a
Guardian to act on your behalf.
Generally speaking, a Guardianship is a public proceeding in which a
person is found to be incapable of making health care and financial and
business decisions for themselves. It is possible your next of kin would be
appointed your guardian by the Court, but that may or may not be the person who
you would want making your decisions. It
is possible a public guardian would be appointed by a judge as your
guardian. The guardian is accountable to
the court for all of your personal and financial matters. The expense and public nature of a
Guardianship make a Power of Attorney an attractive alternative.
By
simply taking the time to plan ahead and getting your affairs in order, you can
rest assured that your financial matters are carried out according to your
plan, if you become disabled, as long as you have selected your decision maker
(Agent) carefully, and provided instruction to that person as to your wishes.
Nancy R. Larson is an attorney in
Belleville and Mascoutah,
This information is intended for
information only, and is not to serve as legal advice.