Is Elder Orphan Planning Only For People Without Family Or Is It For Everyone?

Elder orphan planning is a very important concept for everyone because it is possible for children to predecease their parents. If this does happen, it is better to have planned than not to have planned. Without planning, the people who would then look after you won’t know you. They are only making guesses about what you would want.

Which Estate Planning Tools Should Someone Have In Place, If They Are Looking At Ageing Alone?

Someone who is ageing alone has special considerations with each of the common estate planning documents. First, you would start with a testamentary document that would donate your property upon your death, such as a will or a trust. If you have a strong charitable inclination over any family members, that is going to affect decision making on who will be taking over the other roles and what kind of plan you are going to have in place to preserve that testamentary intent.

The durable power of attorney is definitely necessary. For an elder orphan, you may want to consider protections from financial exploitation by having an attorney hold the original or limiting the language in the durable power of attorney to curtail the legal authority given to another person. The healthcare surrogate is the medical decision maker document. In that document, you may want to be more specific about what you would want with respect to your medical care by working through more hypotheticals. If you don’t have a close medical or personal relationship with someone who is making medical decisions, they won’t have any instructions about what decisions to make. The person you name as healthcare surrogate is required to follow your intent or direction.

You should also consider having a HIPAA authorization to name people who can have access to your medical information, which would be the same people you have named in your other documents. You want to consider naming someone as a pre-need guardian, should any of the people you have named in your document fail to fulfil their roles. The pre-need guardian designation will cover the situation, if your care and financial management require court oversight, that you have a specific designated person named to perform that functional role in your life.

Are There Any Components That Would Offer Additional Protection To Elder Orphans?

Within your estate planning documents, there should always be some consideration of checks and balances. We are all familiar with the concept of checks and balances in our country’s founding document. Your estate planning documents are going to be your official documents, governing you as you age. (Provigil) Inside these estate planning documents, you can consider whether or not you want more people making decisions. You may want to consider release of original documents for certain people to act only upon certain clearly articulated and proved events.

You may want to have certain people named as a trust protector or a trust advisor to monitor the trustee in a trust or naming certain fiduciaries. You want to consider where you go to age. There are communities where you can pay a buy-in fee with the promise from this community to take care of you for the rest of your life. In that elder care community, you would be around people your age with supervising staff to assist you as your abilities become more limited.

Other components that could be considered include who can receive reporting about financial accounts. A trustee could have different rights and responsibilities than someone who is not your trustee managing your IRA or retirement account. When it comes to protection, you are limited only by your creativity and your relationships with people. Any ideas that make you feel more comfortable about your physical and financial wellbeing can be discussed and included in your estate planning documents.

For more information on Elder Orphan Planning In The State Of Florida, an initial consultation is your best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (904) 398-6100 today.

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