Estate Planning and Other Conversation Many People Don't Want to Have

It is important to get estate planning conversations started with your estate lawyer and loved ones. Estate planning should be about more than just talking about money issues, it should also be about family health.

As an estate planning attorney, I am often asked to "draft a Will or Trust" for someone. However, when I begin talking about further health-care related issues, my clients often seem surprised that my initial discussion focuses more on health-care planning than the actual Will or Trust document.

For my clients, I often draft legal documents called Durable or Health-Care Power-of-Attorney.

Legal documents like the ones discussed above are very important. For example, the Durable-Power-of-Attorney enables a person who is nominated by the makes of the document to have power over that person's estate. What does this mean? It means that that a person can be named as the financial and health-care care-taker for someone. Obviously, this can be an important power to have.

One great thing about this document is that it allows the guardian or personal representative to be the sole responsible party when the maker of the document gets sick. If a person becomes sick in at an unexpected or inconvenience time (which is often the case) the holder of the Durable-Power-of-Attorney can make decisions, legally, in a quick and responsive fashion.

The other important legal document is the Health-Care-Power-of-Attorney. Health-care provides will see that a person has been properly qualified to make legal decisions for their loved one. Often, health-care decisions must be made fast. Doctors and other medical personnel need an immediate directive from a valid legal document to inform them what they can and cannot do for the sick loved one.

Broaching the end-of-life discussion is not easy. It simply isn't something that most people bring up in every-day conversation. One easy way to get the conversation started is to focus not on money but, instead, on health care decisions that will need to be made by someone on behalf of their incapacitated loved one.

Talking about death is a difficult topic. Nobody disputes that. Also, nobody wants to talk about death in regular discussions with loved ones. However, an easy way to start talking is to focus on health rather than money. This way, the person you are talking with will be more open and likely to discuss their estate.

However, I often talk to clients and other people who are in dire need for help. Their loved one is sick and they need a lawyer right now. This is not the best way to make a financial and/or health-care decision. People cannot think rationally about the situation because they are upset and grieving.

One of the best way to start the conversation is to start with everybody has in common. The conversation should be free and easy - perhaps at a festive family gathering. Allowing bad thoughts stop you from discussing these issues with a loved one is a bad choice. People get sick and people die. People accumulate money and other assets. Something needs to be done with it and it is better to start the conversation early before it becomes too difficult or, worse, impossible.

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