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Incapacity Planning Can Prevent a Conservatorship

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incapacity planningA lot of people think estate planning boils down to the facilitation of postmortem asset transfers and nothing more. In fact, a properly constructed estate plan will address eventualities you may face toward the end of your life. Incapacity planning is key, and we will explain why in this post.

Life Expectancies

You may not consider the fact that life expectancy increases when you confine the sample to older people. Overall, the life expectancy in the United States is 78 years, but it is longer for people who are older.

The Social Security Administration has a life expectancy calculator on its website. If you plug in the numbers for a woman who is celebrating her 67th birthday today, you would see that her life expectancy is 87 years.

When you consider the possibility of incapacity, you should take this into account. It’s hard to imagine life as an octogenarian, but it is likely if you live long enough to collect Social Security.

Alzheimer’s Disease

There are many causes of incapacity among elders, but Alzheimer’s alone is enough to get your attention. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, about one third of people who are 85 years of age and older have contracted the disease.

Eventually, people with Alzheimer’s become unable to make sound decisions on their own. When you combine this fact with the life expectancy data that we have shared, a clear picture emerges.

California Conservatorship

If you do nothing to prepare for incapacity and you become unable to handle your own affairs, a court-ordered conservatorship may become necessary. The court will appoint a conservator to act as your representative, and you would have to live with the outcome.

This is a necessary safeguard, but most people would like to choose their own decision-maker if it comes down to that.

In addition, family members may not all be on the same page about the matter. This can cause hard feelings when loved ones should be pulling together to support one another.

Proactive Incapacity Planning

To prevent a conservatorship, you can include an incapacity planning component within your broader estate plan.

First, you should have advance directives for healthcare, and one of them is a living will. You assert your life-support preferences in this type of will. You can also record your comfort care medication and organ and tissue donation choices.

Medical scenarios can present themselves that are not related to life-support when you cannot communicate your own decisions. To account for this possibility, you can name an agent in a durable power of attorney for healthcare.

You can add another durable power of attorney to name someone to manage your financial affairs. If you have a living trust, you would be the trustee while you are living, and you can designate a disability trustee to assume the role if it becomes necessary.

Let’s Get Started!

We can help you develop a well-rounded plan that covers all your bases effectively. You can initiate the process right now by calling our Petaluma, CA estate planning office at 707-769-9975, and you can alternately send us a message through our contact page.

 

 

Miranda Dressler
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