Any estate planning lawyer who drafts wills, trusts, powers of attorney and healthcare directives would tell you something frustrating: some clients won’t sign anything the lawyer prepared. This issue is not limited to adult children of aging parents. It affects solo agers and married couples as well.
In a recent conversation at AgingParents.com with an elderly wife (EW), she told me about this herself. She contacted us because she and her husband are both over 70 and she was worried. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease several years ago. They have no kids. She saw a lawyer who drew up all the paperwork she needed. But she decided not to sign any of the papers. Her reasons were vague: I didn’t know if the lawyer missed anything. Maybe I didn’t give him all the information. I wanted to check this out with someone else. Her alternative was to get a Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA) off the internet and get her husband to sign it in front of a notary at a local mall outlet. She did not name anyone in the event that she, herself, became impaired. That’s all she has to act on her husband’s behalf. It occurred to her that if she fell ill or passed, she had not set up anything to keep her husband cared for and safe. There was no one designated to act legally in her place. That could be a huge mess!
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