POWERS OF ATTORNEY FOR FINANCIAL AND HEALTH CARE MATTERS …making health and legal decisions before the crisis.

The process of aging sometimes brings with it medical crises that cause difficulty for everyone - patient, family, doctors, hospitals and health care personnel alike. No one wants to think about death or even physical or mental incapacity. Yet each of us, no matter what our age should give it some thought - and talk about it with our families and attorneys. There are at least three legal tools you, your spouse, your children, your parents and your other loved ones should consider assembling now to help insure that what you want to happen at such a critical time will occur. Those legal tools include: the Durable Power of Attorney, the Power of Attorney for Health Care and a Last Will and Testament.

What is a Durable Financial Power of Attorney?
As our society ages, there is a need to legally act on behalf of people who no longer can do things for themselves. A Durable Power of Attorney makes available a straight - forward, expeditious and inexpensive tool for accomplishing many of the things that the traditional guardianships formerly provided for, as well as avoiding the expense and delay of a court ordered guardianship.

The Durable Power of Attorney establishes a principal and agent relationship when a competent individual appoints someone to handle his or her affairs. In a Power of Attorney, the principal names another person, or even an institution such as a bank, to serve as his or her attorney-in-fact. A properly drafted Power of Attorney allows the attorney-in-fact to continue acting, even after his or her principal becomes incompetent.

Such a document grants legal authority to act on behalf of another person, especially when the other person becomes incapacitated due to a health crisis. A Power of Attorney has the potential to serve as a form of “senility insurance.”

However, like any insurance policy, it is critical to understand the many variations in coverage and the effect such a document may have.

What is a Power of Attorney for Health Care?
Wisconsin allows individuals to appoint an agent to make medical treatment decisions on their behalf, should they become unable to express their preferences due to a disabling condition. The Power of Attorney for Health Care authorizes the appointment of a health care agent to make health care decisions for a person suffering from incapacity. The law allows you to select an individual who will have priority over any other person with regard to making health care decisions on your behalf, in the event you are unable to do so. As a result, the possibility of dispute, litigation, guilt and worry among family members concerning such a decision, is largely avoided.

The Power of Attorney for Health Care Act is an extremely important planning tool when dealing with the possibility of future incapacity. The attorneys at Clair Law Offices, S.C. will discuss the advantages of appointing a health care agent when discussing estate planning issues with you.

What is a Living Will?
A Living Will, also known as a “Declaration to Physicians,” is an advance directive you are giving to your health care providers which states your wishes in the event of a “terminal illness” or a “permanent vegetative state.” Because the Health Care Power of Attorney accomplishes this and more, we generally find little need for a Living Will.

When Should I Consider a Power of Attorney for Health Care?
Even young, apparently healthy individuals should consider the preparation of a Power of Attorney for Health Care, because even they can be suddenly stricken with a terminal illness or severely injured in an accident. Medical decisions have to be made, such as types of treatment, duration or even to have no treatment at all.

When someone has had a medical crisis and is in failing health with little hope for recovery; when all of the costly, painful, degrading and heroic methods may gain only a few more days, weeks, or months for a person who is probably miserable and possibly unconscious - that is when you, your family, and your health care providers will be relieved that you have at least considered a Power of Attorney for Health Care.

When you have the capacity to decide about treatment, it is you who is the key decision maker. When you lack capacity, the key decision maker is someone else. It is up to you to designate a person who will make the final decisions, acting on whatever advance directives you have given them in your Power of Attorney for Health Care.

A Power of Attorney for Health Care offers greater flexibility for decisions. It offers a useful mechanism for protecting the individual’s right to decide their medical treatment and right to refuse life-sustaining medical procedures.

Can I Revoke My Living Will and Power of Attorney for Health Care?
A Living Will, or a Power of Attorney for Health Care, just like your Last Will and Testament can be revoked or changed by you. Provisions of a person’s valid Power of Attorney for Health Care instrument supersede any directly conflicting provisions of a valid Living Will.

Isn't it Time for You to Consider Your Health Choices?
We may know of cases of people in comas with incurable disease being kept alive, often at great cost in both money and suffering not only to the patient, but to the patient’s family. You have the right to make your own health-care decisions, and you can make them right now. You are competent to make decisions and you should have the right to refuse life/death support measures, if that is your desire. You and your immediate family, and no one else, should make such decisions.

A Financial Durable Power of Attorney and the Power of Attorney for Health Care are legal tools which you, your spouse, your children, your parents and others should consider acquiring now to help insure what you want to happen at such a critical time will occur. Good professional counsel at this time can make difficult problems in the future more easy to bear. Clair Law Offices, S.C. has provided experienced estate planning to our clients for many years.

Contact one of the attorneys at Clair Law Offices, S.C. who is knowledgeable about these documents or any necessary advice. It is time for all of us to consider whether we should exert control over our own futures and assist our loved ones by acquiring properly drafted, legal documents.

Have These Documents Prepared Today
Accidents and illness strike down young and old indiscriminately. Your Power of Attorney documents, like your Last Will and Testament, may be the most important papers you ever sign. It is a significant opportunity to direct your future health-care. If you become seriously ill, and you have not executed personalized Power of Attorney documents, you may saddle your family with needless emotional strain and heavy administrative and medical expenses. Beware of the so-called “standard form.” Drafting Power of Attorney documents is complex business, fraught with pitfalls for the unwary and the untrained.

For more information or specific questions you have, please contact us.

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This information which is based on Wisconsin law is issued to inform and not to advise. No person should ever apply or interpret the law without the aid of a trained expert who knows the facts, because the facts may change the application of the law.