Two Documents an Elder Care Attorney Will Help to Make Sure You Have

Every older adult should have all of their essential legal documents. Do you know what they are? If you do not, an elder care attorney would be more than happy to help you to navigate the perplexities of the legal system for you or your loved one, especially when it comes to the realm of paperwork. Estate planning wills and trusts can be a nightmare without the kind help of an experienced legal professional who knows the ins and outs of California elder care laws.

So what are the documents that every senior citizen should have? There are many, but this post will focus in on two essential documents: the Power of Attorney (POA) and a Living Will.

Elder Care Attorney

Power of Attorney

There are two general kinds of Power of Attorney: a regular Power of Attorney and a Durable Power of Attorney (a.k.a. Medical Power of Attorney). A regular Power of Attorney is an authorization to act on someone else’s behalf in a legal or business matter. This is used for legal and business situations and is very different from a Medical Power of Attorney.

A Durable Power of Attorney, or a Medical Power of Attorney, is a document that gives someone else the authority to make decisions on behalf of the principal, or the person who authorizes the request, should they become incapacitated. That means if a person becomes injured, sick, or otherwise unable to handle their affairs, an elder care attorney or estate planning attorney will take care of them. Typically, estate planning attorneys recommend drawing up two such documents: one for health care decisions and one for financial decisions.

Living Will

A Living Will is a document that instructs doctors what life-saving measures one does and does not want taken in the event one is terminally ill. It can also be known as an advance directive, health care directive, or a physician’s directive. It should be noted that a living will is very different from a living trust, which is a document that allows the management of a person’s assets for the purpose of avoiding probate. For more information about a living trust, check out this blog.**

This article was hopefully able to delineate some of the particulars about needed documents. For help with either of these, it is recommended that you contact an experienced elder care attorney today! They will be able to focus in on and help you with your particular needs.