A Chesapeake Estate Planning Lawyer Shares Four Documents You Need to Have in Place

When it comes to estate planning, the first thing that pops into most people’s minds is a last will and testament. You should indeed have a will in place, but there are several other important documents you should have as well.

Estate planning goes beyond designating how you want your possessions distributed among your family—it deals with your assets in life, how healthcare is handled if you’re alive but unable to communicate, and how medical care is handled in your last days. 

Documents That Should Be a Part of Your Virginia Estate Plan

General Durable Power of Attorney

Otherwise known as a financial power of attorney form, this document lets someone decide on a representative to make financial decisions for them if they ever become incapacitated and cannot make those decisions on their own.

This person, or “agent,” should be a trusted individual. They will have the power to do anything the original person would have financially, including accessing bank accounts, selling a business or real estate, managing investments, and more. Power can be revoked if a new durable power of attorney form is signed at a later date or if a power of attorney revocation form is signed.

Healthcare Power of Attorney

If you feel strongly about what kind of medical care you do or do not want to receive, this document lets you appoint someone to make important healthcare decisions in the event you become incapacitated. The agent can only make health care decisions for you if you can’t communicate your wishes independently.

Advance Medical Directive

Instead of simply dealing with medical decisions, an advance medical directive spells out your wishes when it comes to end-of-life care and designates a person to be your representative. In this document, you can specify whether you want prolonged medical procedures to be implemented if you’re in a non-responsive state, if you want your organs to be donated to someone else, or if you want certain procedures avoided at all costs.

Last Will and Testament

This is the document everyone knows. While the other documents deal with what happens while you’re alive, the last will is about carrying out your wishes once you’re gone. You can decide what happens to your assets and how they’re distributed among your surviving family.

Other Documents to Be Aware of for Special Circumstances

• Trusts. In situations where you don’t want someone to pay a large tax or don’t trust someone with a large amount of money at once, a trust allows a third party to hold assets in someone’s name for later distribution.
• Guardianship of minor children. This document lets you designate who you want to take care of your children should something happen to you.
• Burial instructions. If you want to specify how you want your remains handled when you pass away, you can leave this in writing.

The process of planning an estate can be fairly complex. Do-it-yourself options seem easy enough as you just fill in the information on a template, but the truth is that no two situations are the same. Instead of using a boilerplate form that might not be what you need, trust the process to an attorney that can draft documents specifically for your situation.

Trust Your Estate Planning to Coastal Atlantic Law

Coastal Atlantic Law has helped clients with a wide range of estate planning issues. Instead of using a standard template to set up your estate plan, make sure it’s done right from the start with help from a professional attorney. We serve clients in Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, and the surrounding areas. Contact us to discuss how we can be of assistance.