An estate planning lawyer can help in many ways, such as helping to determine who should have power-of-attorney of an elder parent. This can be particularly important in the event that a parent does not have a living will and major decisions need to be made. Knowing the laws in your state as they impact the elderly is essential to helping your family implement the right type of care, oversight to your parent’s estate, and more.
For example, consider the following common scenario. Say there is a family of three siblings faced with the decision to provide care for their father who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Two of the siblings believe their father should enter a care facility, but the third sibling does not believe his father’s dementia and declining health is severe enough to remove the father from his home.
The father does not want to be removed from his home, but he is not well enough to drive anymore.
The father does not have a will, and his wife is deceased.
Who is the decision-maker in this situation? It can be a hard question to answer; mediation and legal agreements about power-of-attorney and financial responsibilities is something with which an estate planning lawyer can help you and your family.
Once a decision is made regarding care, there is often the issue of financial planning and the parent’s estate to manage. Ideally, these items should be dealt with before a parent enters a facility due to expensive and rising costs of long-term health care facilities.
An estate planning lawyer will help you legally protect your parent’s assets, so that you can be there to help your parent without confusion about financing their care.
Planning ahead of time can help reduce the impact of an already-stressful time, when an elderly parents gets to the point of needing care. Prepare ahead of time. Contact BoneeWeintraub for your family’s estate planning needs.
