End of Life Care Planning – What to consider?
Today we’re going to be talking about making end of life care planning decisions.
This is a very serious subject and it doesn’t matter whether somebody’s in good health or they’ve got a terminal illness and a short time to live, the decision-making process is the same. To help your heirs we recommend that you plan for your own death in advance. This should include all the things that you are considering rather than just leaving it as a big mess to your beneficiaries.
Some of the things you need to do before death is:
- Create a last will and testament and
- Decide what you want to do with your property
- You will need to create an Advance Healthcare Directive indicating another person to take over if you become unable to communicate. It should have a HIPPA (health insurance portability act) release for the doctors.
- You need to create a Durable Power of Attorney for Asset Management. If you, for example, have Alzheimer’s and can’t communicate, you need to have someone else to manage your assets that are not owned within your living trust.
Is a will going to be enough or should I create a trust?
If you have less than $166,250 of assets a will might work by itself.
If you have more than that you probably want a trust and a will.
Another important thing to note is that a will is the only place you can identify caregivers or custodians for your minor children.
Click here to learn more about needing a will vs needing a trust!
What is the process of creating a trust and what should be included?
Establish a living trust, move property and title in your living trust, make all decisions about where property’s going to go and indicate that all in your trust because that’s usually the operative document. Update what you’re doing with your beneficiary so they know if you have digital assets which most people do such as email, websites, online storage, etc. Make it easy for your followers to be able to get access to all of your digital assets. Make final funeral arrangements including whether you want to be cremated. Purchase a burial plot if needed. Decide what type of funeral you would like and if you want your ashes scattered at sea, on top of a mountain, etc. All of your wishes should be spelled out clearly. Include any religious belief/needs as well. Lastly, you need to make copies of your documents.
It’s important that the person who is going to take over for you during or after your death has access to your documents. Make sure they’re not all locked up in a safe deposit box.
As time goes on it’s important to keep everything current.
Here is a list of things you may want to consider before you pass:
This is not a 100% complete list, but should give you a good idea of what to think about!
- Do you have emotional letters to write?
- Are there people you need to make peace with before you pass on?
- Do you want to make a bucket list of things you want to accomplish before you pass?
- Have you made a list of personal belongings and where everything is going to go?
- Have you decided where any real property will go?
- Have you decided where photos, videos and things of that nature are going to go?
- Where’s your password list to online access?
- Are there things that you need to sell before you pass?
- What about care for your pets? In some cases people will establish a pet trust
- What unfinished projects do you have that need to be wrapped up before you pass?
- Who do you want present when the time comes?
- What kind of care do you want? There’s a thing called palliative care where you need to give permission to doctors to give you pain medication even if it hastens your death.
- Do you want to have a DNR (do not resuscitate order) so medical emergency personnel know what to do? The DNR order is separate from another document called a POLST. For a POLST you have to work with your doctor to get a physician’s order on life-sustaining treatment.
- Do you want to be kept on a feeding tube if you’re in a comatose state?
- What type of situation would it be if you’re not going to recover? Some people going comatose and then they’re just fine three weeks later so you want to make sure that it’s planned out well.
- How do you want your body taken care of? Do you have any casket preferences?
- Do you want to write your own obituary?
- Have you purchased a burial plot, a headstone, etc?
- Do you want some kind of ceremony?
- Who’s going to deliver your eulogy?
The more that you can plan out before you pass will diminish the burden of your beneficiaries after you’re gone.
I strongly recommend that everyone creates a comprehensive estate plan!
The only way you can really make sure, with a high degree of probability, that your end-of-life and post-life decisions are taken care of is if it’s clearly written down. That way your successors can follow your decisions and directives that you have written out within these documents.
If you become mentally incapacitated or you pass on then everything has to be done as it’s written. If it’s not written down it frequently doesn’t happen exactly as you wished.
