As I’ve aged, I’ve developed different ideas about the kinds of medical intervention that I would want if I am critically ill. Should I amend my estate plan to reflect this? This is not an uncommon scenario. When you were young and first created your estate plan you may have created advanced directives that instructed your doctors and loved ones to do everything that they could to keep you alive. You had a life to lead, children to raise, and work to do. You believed in the promise of modern medicine and you were willing to endure pain and intensive medical treatments in exchange for the possibility of staying alive for many more years.
Things Have Changed
You are no longer young. While you still enjoy your life and are a valuable member of your community, you know that you can’t live forever and you may not wish to suffer, or to have your family watch you suffer, any longer than necessary. For example, you may no longer want to remain on life support indefinitely. Instead, you may have clear ideas about the amount of medical intervention that you want if you are critically ill or hurt in an accident.
If this describes your situation—then the time to make the changes to your estate plan is now. You want to have a fully executed advanced directive in place before you are in a situation where you can no longer make your own decisions.
How to Make the Changes You Want
As I’ve aged, I’ve developed different ideas about the kinds of medical intervention that I would want if I am critically ill It isn’t difficult to make these changes, but it is important that they are done correctly. You can be confident that the changes that you want will be made and enforced if you contact an experienced estate planning attorney to help you. To find out more, contact us directly and subscribe to our free newsletter to stay up to date on other estate planning topics that might be of interest to you.