Incapacity Planning, Trusts, & What I‘m Excited About

“Estate planning is thinking about how to prepare so that if you are incapacitated, or you die, you have a plan in place,” says host and estate planning attorney, Liz Smith. In today’s episode, Liz takes a deep dive into how trusts work and explains the importance of planning for the end of life. 

One of the most commonly discussed topics in Liz’s career is incapacity. She has seen too many times the consequences of not planning for unexpected events. Many young people often think they can put off thinking about the end of life, but in reality, you just never know when tragedy may strike. According to Liz, the first step you want to take is to designate power of attorney to someone you trust ASAP. Many clients are concerned about the potential gray area when it comes to incapacitation, but Liz explains that it would take inputs from several physicians to determine whether or not you are capable of making your own decisions. Even though you may feel like you have enough trust in your family, it is required to have some form of legal documentation in order to pass decision-making responsibility onto someone else. Liz can’t stress the significance of getting this process started now to save you or your family time and money in the future. 

Tune into the first solo episode of the What’s Next podcast for a conversation with Liz Smith about end-of-life preparation. Expand your knowledge about planning for power of attorney, wills, and trusts so that you can better protect yourself from anything life may throw at you!

Quotes:

• ‘What I consider estate planning is thinking about how to prepare, so that if you are incapacitated, or when you die you have a plan in place.”  (03:19-03:30)
• “If you are out there and you do not have a power of attorney, and at least a single healthcare agent domination where you're saying who you want to make healthcare decisions for you if you cannot, then stop this right now and in the show notes will be a link to free power of attorney and health care forms documents.” (03:51-04:13)
• “With a power of attorney, you can decide what powers you want to give that person, I would say broader, the better.” (05:25-05:35)
• “The very basic thing that you want in place, of course, is a will. A will allows you to decide who you want to play in certain roles and where your assets go.” (13:12-13:24)

Links:

For all of Liz Smith’s resources give her a like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lizsmithlaw 

Free AK Power of Attorney: https://courts.alaska.gov/shc/family/docs/poa-booklet.pdf

Free AK Healthcare Directive: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Director/Documents/advancedirective.pdf

Five Wishes: https://fivewishes.org/

Dementia Directive from End of Life Washington: https://endoflifewa.org/tools-for-planning/dementia-directives/

Dementia Directive from Dartmouth: https://sites.dartmouth.edu/dementiadirective/

Webinar regarding end of life planning - with Vance Sanders and Liz Smith, hosted by the Foundation for End of Life Care: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXNrgVg6AWI

Ramit Sethi Podcast, I Will Teach You to be Rich: https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/podcast/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm