Adult Financial Planning: Incapacity Documents

Today's post is part of a monthly series by Deborah Higgins, president of Higgins Capital Management, Inc., on adult care financial planning.

By Deborah M. Higgins/ President/ Higgins Capital

Last month you were introduced to my blog post where an extensive checklist of “where to begin” was provided. I am hoping that you had a chance to review. If you missed it, look for the June 12, 2013 blog post, Adult Financial Planning: Caring for an Aging Parent Checklist.

One key element of the checklist is the assessment of your parents’ financial situation. Are you alone in helping your Mom or Dad, or are other people involved? Does the family member you are trying to help have income from a pension, social security, employment, investment accounts, real estate or other sources? Are these assets properly allocated? Are you in a position to re-allocate to optimize income for care? Do you have an idea of their expenses, their assets and liabilities? The more you know, the more you can look for ways to minimize their monthly expenses to offset the costs of care. Are you on the accounts? Do you have the appropriate documents in place to make decisions for your parent(s)?

Common incapacity documents include:

1) Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
2) Living Will
3) Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order
4) Durable Power of Attorney

(Click on the link above to review the advantages and disadvantages to the common incapacity documents listed.)