Estate planning after a serious diagnosis

On Behalf of | Apr 7, 2022 | Estate Planning |

When you received a serious medical diagnosis, it made you start thinking about your plans for the future. You realized that you didn’t have an estate plan yet, so you decided that it was time to get one put in place for your family.

This is a good time to do your estate planning. There’s no bad time, but something like this certainly means that you need to give it a bit more thought than you would have otherwise. Even when your prognosis is good and you expect to recover, you want to make sure that you cover all of your bases and that your family is ready for whatever outcome occurs.

What should go in your estate plan?

This answer is going to vary for everyone, and the simplest place to start is by dividing assets. If you have minor children, you also want to think about who would be their guardian, should you not be able to take care of them.

Because your condition is medical in nature, you may also want to think about creating an advance directive or using a medical power of attorney. These documents can help to lay out your care wishes for the future, or they allow you to pick agents to act on your behalf. You know that there could be some very serious decisions that need to be made in the future, and you want to be sure that you are legally prepared in case you’re not able to do this yourself.

Creating your plan

Making a plan can help to give you peace of mind at a time like this, and it also puts your family in the best possible position. Make sure you know what steps to take to create a plan that works for them.