In this Elder Law Minute, Steven Milburn explains why powers of attorney are essential, the difference between financial and healthcare powers of attorney, and how they can help families avoid guardianship.
Introduction
Hi, my name is Steven Milburn and I’m a senior associate attorney here at Dent Coulson Elder Law. These Elder Law minutes are intended to provide you with a framework to address any questions that you may have in your estate planning journey. Thank you.
Why Powers of Attorney Are Important
Today we’re going to talk about why powers of attorney are so important and why everyone uh should have one.
Powers of attorney allow individuals you select to make decisions for you. there’s two types, one for financial decisions and one for healthcare decisions.
Financial and Healthcare Decisions
You can select people to act for you when you are no longer able to do so for yourself.
This is important because we never know what’s going to happen.
For example, if you’re in an accident and you no longer have the ability to make financial decisions or healthcare decisions, the power of attorney would allow someone else to step in your shoes and make those decisions for you.
Avoiding Guardianship
If you don’t have a power of attorney, your only other alternative is to for your family or friends to pursue guardianship and go through the guardianship courts which is a more costly and expensive process.
Powers of Attorney and Trust Planning
Powers of attorney themselves are relatively cheap in terms of estate planning and right now at Dent Coulson we have a package for our trusts.
so if you are coming to us for a trust estate planning package we will include powers of attorney for your children under the age of 26 in the price of that package.
Closing
So, if you’re interested in powers of attorney or you want a trust based package, contact us at Dent Coulson Elder Law.
Thank you.
Also looking for information about Medicaid and Asset Preservation? Visit these articles:
“Your Trusted Advisor on the Elder Care Journey”
Dent-Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer’s Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older. At Dent-Coulson Elder Law, our clients’ well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (618) 632-7000 (IL) or (314) 567-9292 (MO), or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.