As you develop your estate plan, you should pay close attention to how you’re addressing your potential healthcare needs. While this certainly includes finding ways to ensure you have the financial resources necessary to pay for long-term medical care, including a potential nursing home stay, you should also think about what will happen if you suddenly become unable to make health-related decisions for yourself.
In these instances, you’ll hopefully have a power of attorney in place, thereby allowing a named individual to step in and make decisions on your behalf. But given the gravity of these situations, you should carefully choose who will act in your place if and when the time comes.
Tips for choosing the right power of attorney agent
Picking someone to act for you through a power of attorney can be tricky. To help you decide who is the right individual for you, here are some considerations to take into account:
- The person you choose should live close to you so that there isn’t a delay in accessing them when needed.
- You should trust the individual named in your power of attorney given that they could be forced to make life and death decisions on your behalf.
- The person selected should know about your medical conditions and how you would want them to be treated.
- The person chosen to act on your behalf should be capable of being assertive, since they may be subjected to pressure from your family members and loved ones.
- The individual you select should be willing to serve on your behalf.
Implement the sound estate plan that you need to protect your interests
There’s a lot that strong estate planning can do for you. You just have to have the time and the willingness to figure out the best planning options so that you can protect yourself as much as possible moving forward. That’s why now is the time to take action to learn as much as you can about estate planning and its benefits.