Description

Guest: Lorne C. Book, J.D.

Estate planning - your “estate” includes anything that a person owns in their personal capacity. Estate planning is the process of leaving your family more than a mess (regardless of the size of your estate).

Estate planning isn’t just for you - if your parents are alive, you need to find out if they have a will.

Two categories of estate planning:

1. Death - who is going to own your property after you pass?
2. Disability - who is going to step in and make decisions for you if you are unable to?

Power of Attorney (POA):

1. Durable POA - for financial matters
2. Medical POA - for medical decisions, coupled with authorization to release medical records under HIPAA

Life Support Directive - your “end-of-life” care - make the decision before you are unable to make it, takes the pressure off your loved ones to make these decisions during a difficult time

Important addition - to have these tough conversations with family members means that you need to address relational rifts and seek to repair those while you have time. 

When your kids turn 18, they are a legal adult and have the capacity to legally contract on their own - be mindful of those individuals and companies who would like to have access to your young adult. Now is the time to talk to your kids about planning early for the important decisions they’ll get to make.

Lorne C. Book, J.D.

Attorney and Counselor at Law

BOOK LAW FIRM

4425 Plano Pkwy., Unit 103

Carrollton, Texas

T: 214-305-6974

lbook@booklawfirm.com

www.booklawfirm.com