What Legal Steps Should I Take Before a Major Procedure?
What Legal Steps Should I Take Before a Major Procedure?
When you discuss a major procedure with your doctor, it can get you thinking about what will happen if something goes wrong. It is always better to be safe than sorry, and having the following documents in place in addition to your will or trust can give you some peace of mind heading into a medical operation.
A will dictates what happens to your property after you pass away, but does not provide for management of your property if you are incapacitated. A trust dictates what happens to your trust property if you are incapacitated or if you pass away. Your trustee will only have authority over property that is titled to the trust.
Durable Financial Power of Attorney: This document appoints a trusted person as your agent to make financial decisions on your behalf if you are incapacitated. A financial power of attorney only applies to non-trust property and ceases upon your death. When you die, the personal representative of your will or the trustee of your trust will be the only person with authority to manage your assets. If you have a trust, your trustee will manage trust property during your incapacity rather than your power of attorney – although they can be the same person.
Healthcare Power of Attorney: This document appoints a trusted person as your agent to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so. This can be the same person as your financial power of attorney or someone different.
HIPPA Authorization: HIPPA is that pesky federal law that says your medical information is strictly confidential. You may have experienced trying to speak to a doctor about a family member’s or friend’s condition, only to be told that they cannot talk to you about it. A HIPPA Authorization is a document you sign authorizing your doctor to speak to your family members about your health.
Living Will or Advanced Directive: This document is used to tell our doctors in advance your end-of-life wishes. For many people, this document tells doctors that if you have a terminal, irreversible condition, or are in a vegetative state, you wish to be kept comfortable but do not wish to be kept alive by artificial means that only prolong the dying process. But, your living will can be worded differently to capture your own wishes.
Some medical offices will hold copies of these documents in their file so that your family does not have to go searching for them. Regardless, anyone that you appoint as an agent should know where you are storing your documents so that they can retrieve them in an emergency.
It is important to keep these documents updated. Not only may your wishes for medical care change, but you may also change your mind on who should be your agent, or your agent may have passed away. Further, for liability reasons, many medical facilities are hesitant to accept old documents, even if they are valid. If your healthcare planning documents are more than 10 years old, we recommend you execute updated documents.
