Rebecca is a 39-year-old about to have surgery to remove a benign tumor in her abdomen. This was completely unexpected. Rebecca is young and many of her peers haven’t thought about putting together their will or advance directive.
However, Rebecca is a planner and has two children, a house, and a business to protect. Her financial planner had consulted with her a few years ago to put these important documents in place to protect her assets and ensure her children were beneficiaries to the assets she wanted to go to them.
During one of her pre-surgical appointments, the nurse asked if the had an advance directive. She knew she had a will and some other documents associated but wasn’t actually sure which exact ones. After her appointment, she went home and found her files. She became clearer on which exact documents she had, which were a will, a living will, an advance directive, and both medical and financial powers of attorney. She remembered how easy it had been to work with an attorney to put all these in place at once.
This planning provided her the opportunity to make sure her documents were accessible to those that needed them in case of an unfortunate outcome. She also called her established agent and reminder her of the documents and made clear her wishes should they need to be activated. Now the files are easy to find in case of future incidents and Rebecca knows exactly what she has in place.