Would You Rather Pick Lice or Talk to Your Attorney About Your Estate Plan?
My kids came home from elementary school several years ago with lice. EEUW! I don’t like bugs to begin with so this was particularly ICKY for me to deal with. But, my kids needed me (of course my husband made himself scarce—what’s up with that?!) so, ‘putting my big girl panties on’, I bought the Delousing Kit at the pharmacy and proceeded to follow the instructions on the box.
Well, little did I know that the delousing shampoo is the easy part. The really disgusting part of the entire delousing ordeal is the painstakingly slow picking of each individual nit (definition: lice egg, for you lucky unindoctrinated readers out there) from your child’s hair. Yes, each hair follicle needs to examined, preferably with a magnifying glass. Just brushing the hair en masse with the worthless comb that comes in the kit doesn’t cut it. I cannot emphasize enough to you how SLOW AND TEDIOUS AND ICKY this process is. I spent hours in the bathroom with my kids to find every last nit.
Believe it or not, I’ve spoken to some folks who just can’t bring themselves to talk to an estate planning attorney about their affairs because they feel it’s every bit as ICKY as what I’m describing with the lice. They cannot face the reality that they will die one day and hope that by not talking about it, it won’t happen.
Well, let me tell you folks, just like you can’t play dumb and pretend your kids don’t have lice when they do (or think the lice will somehow magically disappear on their own), pretending you won’t die, won’t prolong the inevitable. Decisions need to be made and it’s better to make them when you’re relatively young and healthy than wait until the last minute when it might be too late. We all have a magic window of opportunity to make legal decisions and put them in writing and there will come a day for each of us when that window will close.
Some decisions we should all be making for ourselves and our families include:
· Who do you want raising your kids if you aren’t here to do so? In other words, who, besides you, do you trust to pick nits out of your kids’ hair?:)
· Who do you want to leave your money and property to when you die?
· Who do you want making medical decisions for you if you’re unconscious or in a coma or critically ill?
· Who do you want paying your bills and managing your finances and property if you are laid up in the hospital or otherwise out of pocket for a while?
All of these issues and many more will be discussed and addressed by a qualified estate planning attorney. At the very least you should have a written Will or Trust, Durable Power of Attorney, Living Will (if you don’t want to be maintained on artificial life support if you have a terminal condition with no chance of recovery), Health Care Power of Attorney (in Florida we call them Designations of Health Care Surrogate) and an Organ Donation document (if desired).
I challenge you, if you haven’t prepared or reevaluated your written estate plan within the last three years, to make an appointment today to discuss your situation with an estate planning attorney in your State. If you are a Florida resident, you’re welcome to reach out to me personally.
I promise that talking about your Estate Plan sure beats picking nits any day!
