Estate and Trust Dispute Center of Ohio

As we are all aware, these are challenging times. We are all focusing on our health, primarily, but also our financial stability.  Most of you are not thinking about your estate plan; however, during this time it is more important than ever to consider, at a minimum, healthcare directives and financial powers of attorney.  The Estate Planning Practice Group at Reminger is here and ready to assist you. 

Healthcare powers of attorney allow you to name an agent to make healthcare decisions for you if you are not capable of making them for yourself.  The current healthcare power of attorney also permits you to nominate a guardian if one is ever needed and includes an authorization to release your protected health information to your designated agent.  If you become ill and require hospitalization, the hospital will ask if you have a healthcare power of attorney upon admission. Having this document in place ensures that your wishes will be followed in the event of a healthcare crisis.

This is also the time to think about a financial power of attorney in which you appoint an agent to handle your financial affairs.  If you are homebound, or hospitalized, your agent named in the financial power of attorney can handle your banking, bill payment, etc. until you are able to do so on your own.   Both the healthcare power of attorney and the financial power of attorney should be completed for you and any of your children over the age of eighteen (18).  During this uncertain time, we should remember “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” 

We are here to assist you in preparing these documents, as well as any other estate planning documents that may be necessary to complete your plan.  For our current clients, we are here to assist you with updating your current documents if necessary.  Our attorneys are working remotely and can communicate with you via email, phone, or online conferencing.