Anticipating Incapacity

Avoiding probate at death is a common concern for many individuals, but many of them do not consider is how to avoid probate during their lifetime. Too often we are focused on what happens when we die, but we never step back and ask what happens if I become incapacitated, lose my eye sight, lack the mobility to drive to the bank or to my advisors office…? Who will handle that for me? Many of us fail to think about these situations as if they will never happen to us, yet everyday we deal with children contacting our office informing us that mom is in the hospital and may end up in the nursing home or that dad has had a stroke and now he cannot even hold a pen or that grandma has macular degenerative disease and can no longer see well enough to write a check. Planning for these circumstances is not fun, but it is important that we all consider it. A simple Durable Power of Attorney allows you to give someone that you trust permission to act on your behalf during your lifetime. You cannot anticipate when those situations will occur or if they will ever occur but having the document in place well before they occur is important. If you do not take the time to have the Durable Power of Attorney in place before one of these incidents occurs their family may find themselves dealing with the probate court to get permission to act on your behalf. The time and expense of going to probate court to be appointed conservator can run several thousand dollars due to the fact that the process is quite involved.