Читать книгу Estate Planning Through Family Meetings - Lynne Butler - Страница 4

It is not really surprising that people do not want to talk about making their wills. Planning a will forces people to think about their own mortality. We all know that one day we will pass away, but most people do not want to think about that if they can help it. The reluctance to talk about it only increases when someone is terminally ill or critically injured, because the possibility of losing a loved one is uncomfortably close.

Talking about planning for possible mental incapacity is even harder. The fact is, our population is aging. The baby boomer generation is nearing retirement age. The parents of the boomers are now elderly. People live longer now than they ever have, thanks to medical and technological advancements. Living longer, though, does not necessarily mean living your whole life with full mental and physical abilities intact. This is where the planning becomes important and the topic becomes touchy.

The knowledge that one day a parent could have to live with mental or physical impairment leaves many of us in a difficult situation in which we know we should take action, and we are willing to take action, but we are not sure how to do what we need to do. Many people have brought up subjects like moving a parent to a long-term care facility, helping out with banking, or making wills with sincere concern for an aging relative, only to find that their concern is unwelcome. The parents do not always want to do any planning, or even talk about it. The well-intentioned person is shut down, no help is accepted by the parents, and to top it all off, now there is resentment or tension between family members.

With this in mind, you may have come to the realization that your parents or other aging relatives need do some planning while they are still healthy. Or, it might have become painfully obvious to you that a parent is struggling with the onset of physical illness or mental lapses due to the process of aging. With their best interests at heart, you may ask your parents whether the necessary documents have been done. If you have asked this question, you may have discovered that your parents have no legal paperwork or inadequate paperwork in place. Most people fail to prepare the legal documents they need. With the onset of illness or dementia, the time for preparation of documents is running out.