Estate Planning and Updates During COVID19 Coronavirus
Estate Planning for Everyone During COVID19 Coronavirus
Do you have a will, power of attorney, and healthcare directives? At any given moment one of us or a family member could fall ill to the Coronavirus making estate planning important. While our elderly population is at particular risk, people of all ages have contracted the virus and some require hospitalization, and some do not make it through COVID19.
But why do so many of us wait until confronted by a life-threatening pandemic to get our will and estate planning documents created or updated? Attorney Leslie Barrows can help you prepare or update your estate planning documents to give you and your family peace of mind. Call the Barrows Firm today and learn how easy it is to be prepared when times get tough.
For Estate Planning and Updates Call the Barrows Firm in Southlake at (817) 481-1583
Meeting Your Attorney with Social Distancing and Virtual Contact During COVID19 Coronavirus
The Barrows Firm attorneys and staff understand health and safety concerns and precautions. Estate planning documents and can be prepared and sent electronically for review and witnessed signatures. There are ways to use technology to bring the necessary people together to accomplish estate planning goals while maintaining social distance and COVID19 Coronavirus prevention measures.
Make Sure to Update Your Estate Planning Documents
Updates to estate planning documents help you and your family make sure that your wishes are carried out if you are incapacitated, physically unavailable, or deceased. The birth of new children, the addition of family members by marriage, as well as acquired assets and properties need protection. Estate planning documents, directives, powers of attorneys, HIPPA, and trust documents provide protection. Without intentions and directives in proper written form, your decision making can become the province of another person you did not select.
HIPPA Authorization for Patient Records and Documents
HIPPA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPPA regulations protect your personal healthcare information and records and control how those records can be kept and shared in healthcare treatment and communication about patient care. A HIPPA release authorization for records is part of estate planning. It allows you to appoint people with the authority to make decisions for you about the release of medical records. The HIPPA authorization allows your designated spouse, child, or other family member or person to talk to your doctors and nurses if you are hospitalized and unable to make your own care decisions.
Advance Health Care Directives During COVID19 Coronavirus
An Advanced Health Care Directive (“AHCD”) document is an essential part of estate planning regarding the authority of others to make health care decisions on our behalf. Separate of HIPPA issues, decisions on how to proceed with health care can be made by the person you appoint with an advanced health care directive document.
Power of Attorney and Durable Power of Attorney Documents in Your Estate Plan
Decision making can be appointed for times you may be medically incapable or unavailable to make decisions. These appointments can apply to decisions about money, property, and other legal obligations. When you prepare and update your estate planning documents during COVID19 Coronavirus, you can make sure that
Wills with a Special Needs Trust If you Have Minor Children
Wills and special needs trusts are used when a minor child has special needs including public benefits including Social Security Insurance (SSI) and Medicaid, for example. The goal of parents with special needs children is to make their children’s lives as enriched as possible by taking advantage of appropriate and available government programs designed for their care, and administered through a special needs trust.
The benefit of a special needs trust involves the money for it, in the estate of the parents, is not legally considered an asset in the event of the death of those parents. How much income and principal is allocated for the right purposes can be written in the special needs trust.
Trusts in Estate Planning to Protect Beneficiaries
A trust document establishes the relationship among the maker of a trust, the money or property that is the body of the trust, and the rights of the beneficiary to the body of the trust, and their interest in the money or property that is the body. Simply, a trust protects money or property for the benefit of another. If for example, you are leaving money to a child or grandchild and you want to make sure they do not spend it until they reach a certain age, you can accomplish that goal through a trust.
A trustee of the trust for another could be a family member or a professional you trust with the fiduciary duties of a trustee, keep true to the intent of the trust maker or settlor, and the benefit of the named trustee. Trusts are commonly used to hold property as well, where the name of the beneficiary is kept private from the knowledge of the general public.
For All Your Estate Planning Needs and Updates Curing COVID19 Coronavirus, Call the Barrows Firm for Estate Planning, Probate, and Family Law Advice and Counsel at (817) 481-1583
