Imagine… you grow older and your memory starts to go. You fall and sustain and injury requiring surgery, and the anesthesia corrupts your mind to the point that you can’t handle finances, make decisions, or even participate meaningfully in your health care. If you didn’t execute a Durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Proxy when you were well, then your family will have no choice but to pursue a guardianship.
Guardianships cost money, perhaps $2000 if there are no arguments within the family. Your children will have to hire a lawyer and go through a lengthy court process. In the end, the court will appoint someone a “guardian” and from that moment on you will be legally stripped of your power to handle your own affairs and the guardian will make every decision for you. Is there room for abuse here? Absolutely. This story from Minnesota shows both high litigation costs driven by disagreeing family members and also seemingly self-interested decisions by a third-party “professional” guardian – burning through $673,000 of the woman’s assets in two years.
Instead, get thee to a lawyer and “do your documents.” For just a few hundred dollars – and that’s including the initial consultation – you can draft a Durable Power of Attorney and a Health Care Proxy that allows you to name exactly who you want handling your affairs someday, in the event that you can’t speak for yourself. Sure beats spending a lot of money to go through a court process that could easily appoint someone you wouldn’t want making your decisions.