If you have a will, you are in the minority of New Yorkers. To be more specific, you are one of about a third of Americans who have one, according to a 2021 survey by Caring.com. An even smaller percentage has a full estate plan with a long-term care plan.
We have spoken about long-term care plans in the past, but one thing we have not spoken about recently is incapacity planning. Similar to long-term care planning, where you are planning for a possibility that you will need long-term medical care, like hospice or something similar, incapacity planning plans for the possibility that you will become incapacitated.
What does incapacity mean?
Of course incapacity plan will plan for a coma that is caused by an accident or some other medical intervention. Though, it also plans for mental incapacity, or a time where you are no longer able to make your own decisions, but you are conscious. For example, if you have a brain injury, Alzheimer’s, dementia or some other mental issue that stops you from making reasonable decisions or caring for yourself. Indeed, this should be part of your long-term care planning, but it can also be done separately as it could be needed sooner than anyone expects.
What does an incapacity plan do?
It empowers someone to act on your behalf through a New York, New York, power of attorney, medical proxy, living will and other similar documents. And, it states your wishes that they should follow. This is your medical wishes, like the extent life support should be used, personal decisions and your financial well-being.
Day-to-day life goes on
Think about it this way. What does your family rely on you to do every day? Could they do this if you just disappeared tomorrow? That is basically what happens when you are incapacitated, and a good incapacity plan ensures that your family’s day-to-day life can continue until you wake back up or get out of the hospital.