Planning for Different Scenarios

The following documents can help ensure your parents’ health care and finances will be taken care of according to their wishes:

Living Will. States what life-sustaining treatment parents want should they become too sick to express preferences.

Power of Attorney. Allows children to act on their parents’ behalf.

• General power of attorney is valid when a parent is mentally competent but not available, such as away on a trip.
• Durable power of attorney names a person and a backup who have the power to make decisions about finances and other matters on behalf of a parent who becomes mentally incapacitated or can’t speak.
• Durable medical power of attorney, or health care proxy, names a person and a backup to make medical decisions for a parent who has become too ill to do so.

Keep copies of all the documents. Provide copies of the living will and health care proxy to your parents’ doctors, lawyer and other family members, and register them at www.uslivingwillregistry.com. Distribute copies of the general power of attorney to businesses and financial institutions with which your parents conduct transactions.