There's a little bit of a conspiracy theorist in all of us, and mine's been nagging at me for a while to make out a will and health care proxy. You may recall a few years ago a lady named Terry Schiavo, who was dangling along on life support while her husband and parents battled to decide her fate. A will and health care proxy can eliminate a lot of that heartache.
Don't get me wrong - I don't plan on dying anytime soon. However, I was watching the Suze Orman show the other day (looooove her) and she was peddling a free will kit via her website. If you have a spouse and children, or a family who might contest a will, I doubt that the Suze Orman kit would hold up in court. In this case, I'd recommend hiring an actual lawyer. However, since I plan to leave everything to the dog (kidding.....sort of....), the free kit will give my family an idea of what my wishes are should the worse case scenario happen.
Even if you feel the most valuable thing you own is a Woodstock '94 t-shirt, a will and health care proxy is still something you should consider. Some of the benefits? For starters, you can spell out in writing who is allowed to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to make those decisions for yourself. You can also allow a trusted friend or relative to have access to your financial accounts, including the ability to write and deposit checks. As an added bonus you can even draw up a guide of how you want your funeral to go down, which is a big deal if your spiritual or religious beliefs are not in line with your immediate family's.
I drew mine up yesterday and while it wasn't the most pleasant thing I've ever done, it was pretty routine as far as filling out documents I don't understand goes. The bottom line is that it's one thing to read the news of the day and inform your friends that if you ever end up like Terry Schiavo that you want someone to pull the plug; it's another thing to actually put it in writing via a quasi-legal document. If this is something you've been considering for a while, go to suzeorman.com and click on Will Kit. Click on "gift" and enter code "People First".
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3 comments:
Did you leave me the Facts of Life DVDs? Minnie will have no use for them.
You did the right thing about this fact of life or death. \
Actually most of these things really do hold up in court if you can get people to witness them & stuff. Lots of states recognize the "Five Wishes" document, which lets you outline things like whether you want heroic measures, whether you want them to be generous with the painkillers, whether you want to die at home, that sort of thing.
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