Have You Prepared For Health Care Contingencies?

Comprehensive estate planning is going to involve attending to multiple details.  Obviously you have to direct future transfers of financial assets, and you may also want to take care of funeral arrangements in advance.

However, you should consider the before as well as the after.  In many cases people do not pass away suddenly without experiencing any type of significant decline beforehand.

This is true of elders of course, but even younger people can sometimes become incapacitated and unable to communicate.

Medical science is capable of some advanced techniques that can keep people alive for significant periods of time even after they are in a vegetative state and have no hope of recovery.

Different people have different ideas about how to proceed should this type of situation arise.  As we saw with the Terri Schiavo case a number of years ago family members can disagree about the correct course of action.

The way that you can legally assert your wishes to squash any possible acrimony among loved ones while making sure that your own preferences hold sway would be to execute a living will.  With this document you state your wishes regarding medical procedures that you would be willing to accept or deny.

It is also advisable to include a durable medical power of attorney.  Once this directive is in place your attorney-in-the fact would be empowered to make health care decisions in your behalf should you be unable to make them on your own.

Advance health care directives should be included in any comprehensive estate plan and these important legal instruments can be easily executed with the assistance of a licensed Indianapolis estate planning lawyer.

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Paul A. Kraft, Estate Planning Attorney

Paul Kraft is Co-Founder and the senior Principal of Frank & Kraft, one of the leading law firms in Indiana in the area of estate planning as well as business and tax planning.

Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.

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