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Women
and the Law
Every woman
plays a variety of roles in her lifetime.
For example, depending on her
unique circumstances, a woman may be a daughter, an aunt, a
wife, a friend, a mother, a grandmother or even a
great-grandmother. Traditionally, especially in her family
relationships, a woman is likely the nurturer or caregiver.
While she is busy meeting the needs of others, a woman may
forget to take care of her own needs…even needs as
fundamental as her own Life & Estate Planning.
Who will take care of her, the
important people in her life and her property if she is unable
to do so? Who will be the caregiver for the caregiver? What
plans have you made?
Life Planning
Would your loved ones be
prepared to take care of your legal and financial
responsibilities if you were incapacitated? The law says every
adult American must make their own personal, health care and
financial decisions. Certainly the daily news and our own
personal experiences tell us that a serious injury or illness
can strike anyone at any time.
Without proper Life & Estate
Planning your loved ones may be unable to automatically step in
and handle routine legal and financial matters for you. For
example, regardless of their relationship status to you (e.g.
this includes a spouse), no one can sign your name to a tax
return, a real estate deed or the back of a check unless you
have given them authority to act on your behalf through
appropriate legal documents.
In addition to legal and financial matters, your loved ones may
be barred from access to your medical information, verbal or
written, without your prior authorization because of the
legally-protected confidential relationship between patients and
their physicians.
Note: Access to such medical
information is crucial for your loved ones to advocate on your
behalf regarding important life and death treatment decisions,
to include obtaining second opinions or transferring you to a
new hospital.
In the absence of proper planning, your loved ones may be forced
into court to obtain the legal authority required to care for
your personal, health care and financial needs. This likely will
be an expensive and inconvenient experience for them.
Estate
Planning
If given the choice of planning
for their own death and anything else, most normal people would
choose anything else. It is just human
nature. Nevertheless, no one wants to be remembered for leaving
a legal and financial mess for their loved ones to sort out.
What, if any, legal arrangements have you made? How would you
provide for your loved ones, charities, or pets if you are no
longer around to provide for them?
As a rule of thumb, surviving spouses
are particularly vulnerable during the first year they are
widowed. Many grief counselors advise against making any major
life decisions during that first year. Feelings of grief can be
expressed in many forms, to include feelings of loneliness and
abandonment. As a result, many surviving spouses remarry before
they probably should. If your spouse were to remarry, will your
Estate Plan protect your assets for them in the event of a
subsequent divorce or for your children should your spouse
predeceases his next spouse?
Regardless of whether you are married
or single, if you have minor children, what legal arrangements
have you made for their care in the event they become orphans?
Who will provide a safe and secure home for them, as well as
help develop their moral character? Who will manage their
inheritance and protect it for them and from them? The failure
to address these issues may negatively affect your children well
into adulthood.
Even if you have no children, you
likely have definite ideas about who should inherit and who
should not inherit your assets. Whether these objects of your
bounty are humans, animals, birds, fish or reptiles, only proper
Estate Planning can fulfill your objectives. In the absence of
an Estate Plan containing your instructions, state law will
control. In most instances, these laws would distribute the
estate assets to your surviving next-of-kin, which may differ
greatly from your wishes.
Copyright © 2005 Integrity Marketing
Solutions. All rights reserved. Some artwork provided under license
agreement. This publication does not constitute legal, accounting or
other professional advice. Although it is intended to be accurate,
neither the publisher nor any other party assumes liability for loss or
damage due to reliance on this material.
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