{"id":1276,"date":"2020-10-15T15:39:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T15:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/estateandtaxplanningblog\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2022-08-10T16:03:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T20:03:32","slug":"four-basic-estate-planning-documents-that-everyone-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/estateandtaxplanningblog\/2020\/10\/15\/four-basic-estate-planning-documents-that-everyone-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Basic Estate Planning Documents that Everyone Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people think they don\u2019t need \u201cestate planning\u201d because they don\u2019t have enough assets to generate an estate tax; however, there are four basic estate planning documents everyone should have regardless of net worth.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Durable Power of Attorney:<\/strong>\u00a0This document gives an agent complete authority to handle your personal and financial affairs during your life in case of your incapacity, or simply for your convenience even if you are not incapacitated.\u00a0 The objective of the power of attorney is to be as inclusive as possible, so that in the event that you become incapacitated, a court-appointed guardianship or conservatorship will not be necessary to manage your personal or business affairs.<\/li>\n
  2. Health Care Proxy:<\/strong>\u00a0This document names an agent to make legally binding health care decisions in the event of your incapacity.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have one and your doctors are looking for answers regarding treatment, a court-appointed guardian will be required.\u00a0 To give your agents guidance regarding your wishes, you can also include a \u201cliving will\u201d in your Health Care Proxy which is a non-binding statement of intention regarding end of life decisions.<\/li>\n
  3. HIPAA Authorization:<\/strong>\u00a0This document is prepared together with a Health Care Proxy, and it is extremely useful to have on file with your medical providers.\u00a0 It authorizes those providers to release your medical information to the people named in the document.\u00a0 It alleviates those dreaded arguments with the hospital personnel when a loved one is in the hospital and you just want to know what is going on.<\/li>\n
  4. Will:<\/strong>\u00a0The last document that everyone should have is a Will, which controls the disposition of your assets after death.\u00a0 More importantly, if you have minor or incapacitated children, you can nominate a guardian to be responsible for your children when you are gone.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A good estate planning attorney will also give you advice regarding how assets should be held in order to coordinate with your plan and avoid probate.<\/p>\n

    The bottom line is that estate planning isn\u2019t just for the wealthy.\u00a0 Every person should have one even if a trust isn\u2019t desired or necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Many people think they don’t need “estate planning” because they don’t have enough assets to generate an estate tax; however, there are four basic estate planning documents everyone should have regardless of net worth. Durable Power of Attorney: This document gives an agent complete authority to handle your personal and financial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,59],"tags":[260,57,259,312,262],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estates","category-wills","tag-durable-power-of-attorney","tag-estate-planning","tag-health-care-proxy","tag-hipaa","tag-will"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFour Basic Estate Planning Documents that Everyone Needs - Don\u2019t Tax Yourself<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/estateandtaxplanningblog\/2020\/10\/15\/four-basic-estate-planning-documents-that-everyone-needs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Four Basic Estate Planning Documents that Everyone Needs - Don\u2019t Tax Yourself\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many people think they don’t need “estate planning” because they don’t have enough assets to generate an estate tax; however, there are four basic estate planning documents everyone should have regardless of net worth. 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