Part Deux: Your Living Will Matters

As discussed in an earlier article, a Living Will Declaration is one of three documents that should be completed by you today.  The purpose of a Living Will is to determine under what circumstances you would wish to stop medical intervention from delaying, prolonging or extending your life by artificial means or medical intervention.

Impossible to predict, changes of circumstances can force anyone of any walk of life into an Emergency Room under dire circumstances.  In these situations, people who don’t know you or loved ones already reeling from the impact of your condition will be called upon to make decision on your behalf which can ultimately determine your quality of life.  A Living Will Declaration allows you to express your wishes rather than rely on others’ interpretations of your beliefs.  Once completed, medical personnel are bound by law to follow those wishes as outlined.

Some decisions included in a Living Will include whether you wish medical personnel to administer:

• Cardiopulmonary, heart-lung resuscitation (CPR), drugs, electric shock, artificial or mechanical breathing
• Artificially or tube fed food/nutrition, water or fluids and whether you agree to receive them by mouth, nose, IV or stomach/gastric tube
• Life sustaining surgery
• Experimental treatments

You also have the option of noting whether you would wish to spend your last days in a hospital, or similar setting, or prefer to be at home with you family if at all practical and unless it would not burden your family unduly.

When does a Living Will become effective?

Each Living Will contains the circumstances under which it may be enforced.  For any Living Will to become effective, you must first be in need of medical life sustaining or life support systems or procedures.  Generally speaking, a Living Will states that two or more licensed physicians or medical doctors (the number of any additional to be dictated by law) who have personally examined you must deem you to be unable to make or communicate medical decisions and that you have been diagnosed with one or more of the following situations:

• Terminal/incurable
• No reasonable hope of recovery to a meaningful quality of life
• Persistent vegetative state
• Extreme mental deterioration
• Permanently unconscious

If diagnosed as being pregnant, a Living Will cannot be enforced for the duration of the pregnancy.

If I sign a Living Will, will doctors allow me to suffer pain?

A Living Will explicitly states that unless you specify otherwise nothing contained in it should inhibit the ability of medical personnel to administer pain relieving medication or any other type of care that would provide relief or comfort to you including drugs or treatments which might:

• Shorten your life expectancy
• Become habit forming
• Have adverse effects

Careful consideration should be considered before determining the level of care you wish to receive.

Keep in mind that any intervention or combination of interventions can be useful when dealing with critical care of your body.

Some individuals will sign a Living Will with the intent of keeping themselves from being eternally connected to a ventilator for months.  While many of us do not relish the idea of being on a ventilator, choosing the option of NOT being able to receive artificial or mechanical breathing intervention could lead to your death even in cases where your survivability was possible.

The extent to which you wish to extend the possibilities of your survival usually coincide with the extent to which you wish medical personnel to intervene.  Keep in mind that denying medical care can result in your premature death while the lack of limitations to intervention can lead to financial and emotional ruin for your loved ones.

A Living Will becomes effective from the date you sign it and is legally binding.  Your wishes and the ability for others to intervene are determined by what it contains.  Choose carefully, consider the ramifications of each level of care you wish to deny yourself and the impact of your decisions on family, friends and finances.  What is important to you, in what order and to what extent can be expressed in a Living Will.

Disclaimer:  No information on this blog should be taken to be legal advice of any kind.  ALWAYS consult an attorney before signing any legal document.

The Big Three in Personal Legal Documents

Image by gjs via Flickr

Most of us think about legal paperwork as something we can do in the future or when the time arrives.

Unfortunately, you may never know if that time is now. So get out your pen, write down this list, and get it done today.

The top three legal documents are:

a DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY

a LIVING WILL

a HEALTHCARE POWER OF ATTORNEY and, for some, its matching DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

Let’s talk about the Durable Power of Attorney first.

A Durable Power of Attorney basically names a person(s) or institution as your lawful representative to act on your behalf in any legal matter you have listed.

Examples of powers given in a Durable POA include authority over your property, tangible or intangible; money, debts or rights involving money or debts; government, retirement, insurance, pension, Medicare or other program benefits or proceeds; safe deposits, vaults or storage areas; taxes; gift giving; any transaction, business interaction or application for such including life insurance, litigation, suits, disputes etc regardless of whether you have set aside certain items as part of estate planning or a pattern of management of a particular item or entity.

You should be aware that these powers are sweeping, BUT YOU determine what and to whom receives any or all of these powers. You do not have to appoint all powers to one individual or any one power to anyone. You can create a Durable Power of Attorney that covers certain areas for certain people as long as you clearly spell out their rights and limitations of representing you. So, for instance, if Uncle Wilbur is really good at real estate, but lousy with stocks, give Uncle Wilbur the power over your real estate needs but exclude him from your stocks. Aunt Martha may be great at taxes, but likely will give the farm to Aunt Edna; so you’d want to limit her ability to give that away.

Splitting powers amongst representatives can be a very smart move, but it is not without some potential problems:

Make sure you do not overlap powers, unless you draw up a seperate POA that lists just the joint powers given, you have the potential for confusion or denial of the validity of each POA.

VERY important-when listing more than one representative on a document, make sure that you clearly state whether you wish the representatives to work independently or together and how any disagreement should be resolved. In many states, if you fail to list that the representatives can work independently and to what degree, they are bound by law to work together and agree on all things. This may be impractical if you list individuals who live far away from one another. You should also spell out how such an arrangement would be handled if one of the individuals were to become unable to fill their obligations as your representative. You do not want your business to be tied up because you named two people and one of them is unable to sign for you.

If you are going to seperate powers, make life easier for others by listing the general powers given under each POA in its title. For example, if it is a Durable Power of Attorney covering real estate matters, title the POA: “DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR REAL ESTATE PURPOSES” or something similar. This helps diminish the odds that someone will fail to read your POA and assume that your representative has the power to make other decisions in your stead.

Make sure that all copies of your POA are registered with the county clerk’s office. The county clerk’s office will then have a registered copy that cannot be altered and that can be referred to in the instance of any dispute of power or authority.

You should also determine when your appointee is allowed to exercise POA powers. Some Durable POA’s state that the representative has full powers upon the completion of the documents notarization. Other Durable POA’s state clearly that the powers allotted are NOT available to the representative until such time as the grantor (YOU) is determed to be “disabled” or “incapacitated” and usually only after this is certified by a physician.

With all these pitfalls you may be wondering why you would ever want to complete a Durable Power of Attorney. The bottom line is this…if you are involved in a car accident and unable, whether physically, emotionally or mentally, to conduct your everyday activities like paying your bills, would you rather have someone who can temporarily act on your behalf or face financial ruin because you were unable to pay your bills even though the money was there all along?

Choose someone or an institution you trust, ensure that you have expressed your ideologies and wishes regarding the types of transactions you will be empowering them to perform, ensure you have limited the powers given to an individual based on your knowledge of their own weaknesses or skill level without prohibiting their ability to perform on your behalf in such a way as to make it impossible or difficult to do their job as your representative…and finally, ensure that you have discussed what, if any, compensation you are willing to provide them for providing you this service. You do not have to compensate them, but they do not have to act as your represenative either.

Put yourself in their shoes and try to imagine what information you would need to know to make decisions that you would approve, and ask yourself to what extent you would be willing to represent someone else and under what circumstances.

Granting the power to represent you is an act of trust and faith; taking on that responsibility is an exercise in character.

Choose wisely.

Disclaimer: No information on this blog should be taken to be legal advice of any kind. ALWAYS consult an attorney before signing any legal document.