EP126: Financial Caregiving Series: Legal Authorizations

<p><span style="font-weight: 300; font-size: 12pt;">Taking care of legal matters before a crisis helps ensure that you, not lawyers or courts, remain in control – it may even save countless disagreements further down the line.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 300; font-size: 12pt;">Make sure these essential legal documents don't cause wrinkles in your plans by tuning into This Is Getting Old: Moving Towards An Age-Friendly World and my guest this week, Cameron Huddleston.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Key points covered in this episode:</strong></span></p> <h2><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>✔️Estate Planning, Advance Care, and End-of-Life Planning—It’s  Not Just Something For The Rich</strong></span></h2> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">When people hear the term estate planning or end-of-life planning, legal documents, people often think, well, this is something that rich people do. I don't need to worry about an estate plan because I don't have an estate.</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">An estate is really just a fancy word of saying your property, your belongings, and your assets.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt;">If you die without a will, state law will determine who gets your assets. That means your things might go to someone you don't want to receive those things, or it also might mean that your property needs to be divided up – and it may not be divided in the way you wanted it to be. </span></p> <h2><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>✔️ Understanding Power of Attorney </strong></span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt;">You want to get the Power of Attorney (POA) document right because this gives someone permission to manage your finances. You want to make sure you're giving them the right permissions. You want to have an attorney sit down and discuss what powers you want to give that person and make sure it complies with your state law.</span></p> <p><span style="f