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What Happens If You Become Mentally Incapacitated Without an Estate Plan?

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Hey there, Bridget MacKay from MacKay Dressler Law Firm. Today, I want to talk a little bit about incapacity and what happens if you become incapacitated. And I’m going to use the example of a sudden stroke because those are often not predicted, and you end up on the other side of it needing some care and having some functionality lost.

So to put this in context, there are really two types of plans you can create for yourself, or you can have created by an attorney, which is our preference. There’s either a will plan or there’s a trust plan. And the big difference between those two plans is if you get a will, you’re often in court for things like death or incapacity. But if you have a trust, all of that’s built into that plan.

But if you have neither of those, and you have a stroke and you are unable to manage your health decisions or you’re unable to manage your wealth or your assets, then someone close to you, whether it’s a spouse, a child, a neighbor, a trusted friend, will need to go to court and do a conservatorship. And a conservatorship is what we also like to call a living probate because you’re alive, but the court is controlling every aspect of your life, from what health decisions are made on your behalf to what money is spent on your behalf for your care.

And I can tell you that it is, first and foremost, very expensive. It is also very confusing, full of chaos, and time-consuming. It takes a long time, and it happens when you are at your most vulnerable moment in life, where you can’t handle your own things, and you are relying on someone else to care for you and make decisions for you.

And if you have a will, let’s say you’re someone out there who has a will, that’s not gonna help you any. Wills only become working when you have died. So there’s a real gap in the possibilities of what can happen in your life called incapacity. And truly, the only way to plan for it and have some control and management of how it’s going to go down is to get a trust. So I can’t say this more forcefully. If you are aging, you should have a plan in place, and it should take into consideration incapacity. And truly, the only solution to that, I’m going to be real, is a trust.

Okay, if you love this video or you have comments or questions, please comment, like us, subscribe, and we’ll see you in the next video.

Bridget Mackay
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