It is essential to create a contingency plan naming someone to make decisions for an elderly individual before illness or incapacity impairs their ability to create and understand legal documents.
Under California law, a person must be mentally competent to create valid legal documents. Once a person has dementia or is heavily medicated, it is too late for that person to give someone else the right to make healthcare and legal/financial decisions on his or her behalf. The time to create a plan is before it is needed.
All individuals, but especially seniors, need a Health Care Directive and a Power of Attorney. The Health Care Directive provides detailed instructions about the level and type of health care an individual wants to receive if he or she becomes unable to make those decisions. A Power of Attorney assigns the right to manage an individual’s financial, business, and real estate affairs to someone else in case of incapacity, temporary or permanent.
The Flanigan Law Group provides Southern California residents with personal attention for estate planning, administration and litigation legal services. When disputes between families, arise, they are very successful in resolving legal estate issues quickly and efficiently while preserving financial and emotional resources. Contact the Flanigan Law Group at 949-450-0041.