While drafting an estate plan, one important thing to keep in mind is the necessity to make medical decisions. Many people begin by splitting up their assets, choosing beneficiaries and making other decisions about how their estate should be administered. But your estate plan can also address end-of-life care and healthcare needs, especially if you become incapacitated.
One way to do this is by writing a living will. It’s a type of advance directive, and you can use it to make critical medical decisions. Do you want to be kept on life support? Do you want to be resuscitated? Are there any specific treatments that you are averse to? You can list these types of instructions so that, if you’re incapacitated and doctors are trying to determine how to treat you, they can look to your living will to learn what you would’ve wanted.
How is a power of attorney different?
Your second option is to use a power of attorney, which works much differently. You don’t actually have to make any choices in advance, which can be nice because it’s impossible to accurately guess what the future holds.
Instead, you use the power of attorney to give decision-making authority to an agent that you have selected. Maybe you have a younger sibling who is a healthcare practitioner, so you know that they’ll be able to make wise decisions and that they will put your best interests first. You can choose them as your agent and then, if you are incapacitated, they can talk to your doctors and make decisions at that time.
Both of these documents can be useful, so it’s wise to consider them and all of the other estate planning tools at your disposal.
