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I see a common thread on this site of people whose parents or other LO do not have a POA or Healthcare order/directive in place. Luckily Mum and Dad both have one in place buy my former mil does not. How many carers have taken the time to put their own in place? I admit I did not update my will, nor did I have anything in place until late last year at age 50. I am lucky that my sil is a physician and she will make any needed medical decisions. My brother will handle the financial side of things, plus they are co-executors for my will. When my children are older, I may add them, but they are far too young at this time to take on the responsibility. My health is good, my mind intact, but accidents do happen, and as a divorcee I need to have someone I trust to make healthcare and financial decisions as needed should I be unable. My bil who is only in his early 60's, suffered a serious heart attack last weekend. It is still touch and go and lots of prayers, plus the best doctors available, but it is a reminder that we need to have these things in place long before we think we will need them.

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My spouse and I do have POAs, wills and a trust in place. We had these executed when my spouse's father passed away in 1996 and we were handling the probate/estate matters. The will was updated, although I really should draft new POAs and revoke the old ones to make things simpler (i.e., I don't want anyone to be hassled by a 20+ year old POA).

I drafted a new POA for my husband's uncle, because it only had my MIL as agent, and she has dementia. His will was okay as is. When my MIL began her health decline and a clear cognitive decline, he became concerned with his documentation and asked me to draft new health care and property POAs for him, and a standard HIPAA release, as well. The joys of being a legal professional who looks at these documents frequently every work day!

I agree that all should have these documents in order. There are many sources out there to obtain a free document. If you have assets and the like, I do always recommend talking to an elder law/estate planning attorney now, not later to get the documents and to consider asset protection/management in case one may need to qualify for Medicaid rates. It's best to handle this well in advance, as the Medicaid look back period is 5 years (at the moment - it could be extended out further with future law changes).

May you all find the time to take care of yourselves in each and every manner you deserve - including legal needs!
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Uh, I've always figured I will take care of all that after mom dies and her estate is settled. Of course, I never counted on her living this long.
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Have a will, no POA.. and I know better. But it took an act of god ( and threatening to NOT let hubs go on a huge hunting trip) to get the will done. Time to try again...
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Such great advice, and something my husband and I need to do, update our Will's, and reevaluate our POA's and healthcare proxy's, and especially to do the POLST form, which take any difficult decisions off of the Healthcare POS's plate! 

Having just lost my FIL, and closing out his estate, thankfully his was pretty simple, as he didn't own any property any longer, and had cashed out all of his investments into simple CD's, but it can make things more complicated when you do own homes, cars, investments and recreational property.

It's a Crummy job to put upon anyone, but a nessesary one, so choose wisely.

We've divided the responsibilities between our 2 eldest Son's, who I know can work well together to make any decisions nessesary should that ever be the case.

It's a good reminder to folks to "get er done", as we all get so busy caring for our own LO's, and it can so easily slip through the cracks.
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