Estate planning is just for death, right? What am I supposed to have done to prepare for accidents or incapacity? I’m Sarah Siedentopf. I’m an estate planning attorney in Atlanta, Georgia.

Wills, by their nature, only kick in after you’ve passed away. So, they are very much focused on who gets what after you have passed. But other pieces of estate planning, such as trusts, trusts do handle the who gets what after you have passed, but they also allow for easy lifetime management of assets if you are incapacitated and need someone else to manage them for you.

Financial Power of Attorney, is the piece of the puzzle that says, “If something happens to me, I’m not in a position to make my own legal and financial decisions, who should be making those for me.” The Advance Directive for Healthcare is a medical power of attorney that says, “If I can’t make my own medical decisions, which decisions do I want made, and who should be in charge of making those calls.”

And then, Designation of Standby Guardian says, “If something happens to me, I’ve got minor children. Who should be stepping in in the emergency to take them.” So many, if not most of the components of estate plans are actually focused on lifetime incapacity emergency planning, which is why it’s important to have an entire plan and not just a will. Because if something goes wrong and you are in the hospital, not able to speak, we don’t have the ability to just whip up a power of attorney. You can’t sign it, you can’t understand it. It can only be done before you need it, not after.

Estate planning is very much focused or should be focused on incapacity planning and dealing with emergencies and unexpected things. If you’d like to talk about whether your plan does that or set up a plan that does it, please give me a call, and also please like and subscribe. Thanks.