The Benefits of Attending Law School

Diagnosed With Dementia? 2 Things To Take Care Of Now Before You Get Worse

If you have just been diagnosed with dementia you will get much worse. Before this happens, you need to take time to take care of things now. This will make things much easier on your family members in the future. Below are two things to get started with.

Estate Planning

Even if you are not rich you still need to take time to do estate planning. This is important as this lets you choose who gets your assets. The last thing you want to happen is for a family heirloom to get into the hands of someone you don't trust not to sell it. You also do not want to leave behind money to someone that is on drugs or untrustworthy. Also, if you have guardianship of grandchildren, estate planning will allow you to choose who takes guardianship of these children. 

Estate planning will also cut the taxes your family will have to pay after you pass. This can save a considerable amount of money for everyone. One of biggest benefits of estate planning is that your family will not go through a lot of fights after you pass. An estate planning document is legally binding, and your family will not be able to make changes to it after you pass. 

You need to hire an estate planning attorney to help you get everything set up to ensure you do things properly.

Durable Power of Attorney

A durable power of attorney will give someone that you choose the legal authority to take over your finances. There will come a time where you will not have the ability to pay bills or keep a checking account. You may purchase things that you do not understand. This could end up being large purchases, such as taking out a large loan on your home. You could do this without your family knowing and in the end your family would be affected by this. 

There is a standard power of attorney (POA) that states who you want to have control over your finances but ends when you become incapacitated. A durable power of attorney is needed, however. This is because this type of power attorney gives the person you choose to continue taking over your finances after will not have the ability to. If you do not set up any kind of power attorney, a court will decide who takes over when your symptoms become much worse. 

There are free power of attorney forms that you can print and fill out online. You can also hire an attorney to set up a durable power of attorney for you. No matter what you choose, you and the person you choose will have to sign the POA in front of a notary. The notary will then notarize the document to make it legal. 

Talk to an attorney as they can tell you of other things you need to take care of now.


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