Hello, I’m Christopher Lavin and an attorney with the Lavin Law Group. We are an elder law firm here in Lebanon, Ohio.
Elder ideas about long term care and medical emergencies and traditional planning. And a big part of our practice deals with you handling the affairs of a loved one. So often I’ll have a family member come in for their spouse, family member come in for the parent. And they’re asking questions and they’re trying to figure out options and what the best plan will be. But the first question I had to ask them before we get into the details is, are you the power of attorney?
Because unfortunately, it’s a legal world. You have to give someone permission to speak for you. And if you don’t give someone that permission to speak for you. Then, the only other option could be what’s known as a guardianship. Guardianship if is state supervision. It does have a purpose, but it’s also a little cumbersome and it may not give you allow you to plan with all your best options for a loved one.
So we try to minimize court contact. You don’t really want to volunteer to be a ward of the state of Ohio or Kentucky. And you don’t want the state necessarily making your financial or your personal decisions. So the first line of defense is power of attorney, power of attorney, power of attorney. Power of attorneys are even as important as wills, trust, or anything else you’re doing.
Because if you don’t have a proper power of attorney or a detailed power of attorney, it can put limitations on what your options are. Now, we had this uniform Power of Attorney act about a decade ago, and it used to be the Wild West. One paragraph, and I think one paragraph can make any assumption that’s not the case.
We pulled that one paragraph into three separate documents. Let me just list the three power of attorneys we look for. There’s a durable power of attorney for health care for hospitals, doctors hit by any conversation there. There’s a second document known as the Living Will, which is hydration, nutrition machines, end of life stages. Then there’s a third power called the business power of attorney, the general power of attorney that lets you keep the lights on any transaction necessary.
Have those reviewed. If you did those a while ago, because, again, nothing’s assumed anymore. And if they don’t have the right language, it can be some roadblocks. Don’t just tuck them in the door and forget about them. They’re practical documents. Get health documents of the health care powers to your physicians, documents that are financial power of attorneys, copies to your to your financial guys, give copies to your family.
You keep the original. But we want to make sure people approve of them, know of them, because we do use them in a crisis and we need them to act quickly.