Protecting Yourself and Your Loved Ones Through Incapacity Planning

An incapacitated person has been judicially determined to lack the capacity to manage property. The definition is broad and intended to encompass conditions based on a medical diagnosis or could meet it by reaching an advanced state of physical frailty that prevents them from caring for themselves. The determination is decided individually and begins when a potential guardian petitions the court for guardianship. Committees are formed with people qualified to render an expert opinion to determine mental capacity.

End-of-life planning decisions are neither simple to make nor pleasant to address. Unfortunately, these are some of the most important decisions you can make when planning. Failure to consider these choices while you are of sound mind and body can cause these decisions to be determined by the courts, causing your loved ones pain and distress.

A young woman leans down to embrace a smiling elderly woman seated in a wheelchair on a sunlit tree-lined path.

Durable Power of Attorney

The power of attorney is a legal document that allows you to assign an individual to act on your behalf. The trusted individual you name as power of attorney can pay your bills, manage your investments, and make other decisions if you cannot do so. General powers of attorney are nondurable, meaning they cease should you become incapacitated. The durable power of attorney remains effective if you become incapacitated and cannot manage your own affairs. Without a valid durable power of attorney, if you become incapacitated, your loved ones may not have the authority to handle your affairs; they may need to go to court.

Designation of a Healthcare Surrogate

A healthcare surrogate — or healthcare agent — is an individual you name to receive durable power of attorney for your healthcare. This designation gives the individual the power to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated or cannot medically decide for yourself. Your healthcare surrogate will be given complete authority to make your medical decisions in that circumstance, but they can override no healthcare instructions you have set forth in a living will.

Ensure peace of mind for yourself and your family. Call us at (301) 468-3220 or contact our office to schedule a consultation regarding your end-of-life and incapacity planning needs.

Testimonials

Needed trusts, medical directives and wills. Extremely professional and thorough services, carried out with courtesy and nice mints!

Robert Goodfellow

Personal service that is totally professionally attentive and takes the attitude of “deliver the best” and absolutely succeeds.

Barton & Carolyn

I have referred numerous clients to Gary and all have reported back as being extremely pleased. From the easiest to much more complex estate and probe issues he can boil them down and communicate them in a way that is very plain and understandable to the client. His “bedside” manner and ability to communicate are excellent and his legal skill and strategic approach are top notch.

Attorney

For the past twenty years, Gary Altman has provided my wife and I with expert, superior, professional advise and counsel with respect to our estate planning, trusts, and period review/modifications. He has also guided the registration and charter processs for our LLC, focused upon management consulting but with a wide, optional practice domain. We have recommended Gary to numerous friends and a few relatives, who have used his services and benefited from his insights and counsel with total satisfaction. He is thorough, pragmatic, learned and quite capable of explaining any particular legal approach in “plain english” – understandable to the professional or layperson. Moreover, since entering into his private practice many years ago, we have found his office staff to be consistently responsive, proactive and “sharp” in providing any necessary logistical assistance to both trivial and serious matters at hand. Having myself worked in the international field for over 35 years, I have found Gary to relate quite well to international affairs and to related matters of legal concern, which are of extreme benefit to my foreign national colleagues residing in the US as visa-holders and/or dual-citizen US passport holders (e.g., taxes, property ownership, trusts, etc.) Unequivocably, Gary Altman is five-star in every respect.

Allen Shapiro