Pew Research surveys found in 1990 that 12 percent of Americans had a “living will,” a figure that rose to just 29 percent by 2005. So on a nearly daily basis, the palliative care specialist Dr. Joshua Lakin said in an interview, “I’d see someone who’d had lung cancer for several years, who’d been in and out of the hospital, had seen 20 doctors, and still hadn’t thought about the future and his priorities. It kind of blindsided me.” So Dr. Lakin, who just completed a fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, and some colleagues took an entirely…
In this article, Forbes’s Deborah L. Jacobs offers an expansive look into the unique position of women in estate law, especially given current developments as of last December, and the unique necessity for women to practice proper estate planning. Among Americans 65 and older, 42 percent of women, but just 14 percent of men are widowed. Women’s longer life expectancy, combined with their tendency to marry older mates and their lower lifetime earnings means they are far more likely to see their living standards compromised in retirement if proper estate planning isn’t done. The article includes a gallery of the…
One of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of estate planning is preparing for the possibility of your own incapacity – whether through illness or accident, and whether temporary or permanent. In the event that you are unable to make financial decisions – such as filing your taxes, selling property, or making investment decisions – have you given someone the legal authority to act on your behalf? You may have heard of a Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA), which is a legal document giving another person (the attorney-in-fact) the legal right to do certain things (powers) for another. A…
In reviewing the New York Times, I came across the following article in the New Old Age section. What is done when a power of attorney is left to both siblings jointly but one decides to become uncommunicative and “checks out,” not participating in decision-making, handling estate matters or caring for a parent with dementia? Does the sibling left with shouldering the burden really have to go to court to get the other sibling’s name taken off the power of attorney? The answer, carefully review the document to see if there’s any provision that allows one agent to remove the…
A trust in lieu of a will – may be better if you have a complex estate, require asset protection from the nursing home, a beneficiary who must meet certain conditions before receiving assets or a special-needs loved one who requires care after you are gone.
Frederick, MD 
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