BY SUSAN KOSTAL OF CARING.COM
These documents will ensure that you can assist your parents in a medical or financial emergency and, at their deaths, ease the distribution of their estate:
A medical directive
Also known as a living will or advance health care directive, this document sets out what kind of care your parents want to receive if and when they become ill or incapacitated.
A durable power of attorney for healthcare and HIPAA release
A durable power of attorney for healthcare allows you to make healthcare decisions for your parents. A HIPAA release gives you access to your parents’ health records and physicians.
A durable power of attorney for finances
A durable power of attorney for finances allows you to manage your parents’ financial affairs, pay bills, sell property, and so on.
A revocable living trust
It allows your parents to retain control over their estate while making transfers of assets to beneficiaries. Your parents designate what property (home,
Continue reading AGING & CARING: 5 legal documents you need for your parents »
There’s even happiness guilt – when caregivers feel bad about feeling good.
I hear the stories every week, it seems: The last one was about a friend’s mother, who received an enormous bill after her insurance company deemed a treatment for atrial fibrillation “experimental.”
BY STEPHANIE MILES OF
BY PAULA SPENCER OF
BY MELANIE HAIKEN OF
BY MELANIE HAIKEN OF
BY MELANIE HAIKEN OF
Some of the saddest caregiving stories concern brothers and sisters who come to loggerheads over some aspect of their parents’ or another relative’s care – and wind up saying ugly things, or not speaking, or worse. (By worse, I mean court feuds, permanent family exile, and even violence.)
BY PAULA SPENCER OF