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Estate Planning, Wills, and Trusts

Six estate planning documents that every Texan should consider.

What Is An Estate Plan? Why Is It Important?

When we say estate plan, it's your will. Your will is the one that says I want my husband to collect all of my assets, and I want my assets distributed to my husband and children. It's his job to make sure that's accomplished. But we also do the other documents; we have your Power of Attorney, Statutory Durable Power of Attorney, which is your Power of Attorney for your finances. What that says is that if you're incapacitated for any reason or if you're not able to make your own decisions, who do you want to step into your shoes to make those decisions. If you do not have that document in place, it's a judge who decides who makes those decisions on your behalf. We also have a Power of Attorney for Health Care. Again, if you're unable to make your own decisions, who do you want to make your medical decisions on your behalf? If you need surgery, if you need medication, and you cannot make those decisions for yourself, you want to be the one to control who makes those decisions for you. You don't want the judge to make that determination. We also have the Directive to Physicians, also known as the Living Will. That's the document that states whether or not you want to be hooked up to any life support or what life sustaining measures or treatments you want to maintain your life. We also have HIPAA Authorization. We all have our right to privacy of our medical records, and I completely agree with that. But there are some instances where you may not be able to give that consent to the doctor or to the hospital to release your medical records. With this document, it's called a HIPAA Authorization, you're letting the doctor and the hospital know who the people are that can get to those medical records.