You cannot pre-determine your health or when you will die, but in a comprehensive estate plan, you can decide, in advance, many issues relating to health care and distribution of assets before and after death. A comprehensive estate plan can include:
A will: A document directing how your assets are to be distributed when you die.
Trusts: Financial arrangements that enable you to set aside and manage/invest certain property for the future benefit of yourself and/or someone else, either while you are alive or after you die.
A durable power-of-attorney: A document that allows you to appoint someone to make financial, legal or other decisions for you if you become incapacitated.
A health-care proxy: A document in which you appoint someone to make health care decisions for you if you become incapacitated
A living will: A document that makes known your wishes about whether and to what extent life-extending medical measures should be taken in the event you have a terminal illness and are permanently incapacitated or unconscious.
If you don’t decide these things in advance, they will be decided for you by a New York Court applying the state’s guardianship laws and its Estates, Powers and Trusts Law. These laws direct what happens to people and property when someone dies without a will (called “intestacy”) or becomes incapacitated without having planned for it. The requirements of those laws may not coincide with your wishes; however, if you plan ahead and make your wishes known, New York law sees to it that your wishes are honored as much as is possible.
Regardless of your situation or your age, an experienced estate and trust lawyer can help you create a comprehensive plan for the protection and distribution of your assets during your lifetime and after you die. An estate and trust lawyer can help you make a will, create a trust, and make other legal arrangements that give you control over difficult health and financial decisions that may arise during your life and eventual death.
