Amy's Angle

Who Would Care For Your Children If You Got Sick With COVID-19? The pandemic is causing us to consider a lot of things that we may not have before, even if maybe we should have. It brings to mind something a colleague of mine shared recently. One unremarkable weekend, she left her small children with a babysitter and headed out to enjoy dinner at a restaurant with her husband. But as she sat there, a thought crept into her head that she couldn’t let go. What would happen to her kids, she thought, if she and her husband got into a car accident on the way home? And even though my colleague is an estate planning lawyer herself, and she had a will at home naming guardians for her kids, she didn’t have a definite and clear answer that provided the comfort she wanted. Her will was in a vault, and her named legal guardians lived thousands of miles away.   It was that thought that spurred her to take action, not only for her own family, but to create tools and resource...

A Map to Doing the Right Things for the People You Love During the COVID-19 Pandemic Right now, huge numbers of people are coming face to face with their own mortality, and realizing they need to plan for the worst. This goes not just for those of us in the “senior” category, but for all of us, no matter our age. We are facing the reality of our mortality, and many of us are doing it courageously by taking this as an opportunity to learn what we need to do for the people we love. Recently I heard a tragic story from a colleague whose client recently lost her fiancé to COVID-19. Because she wasn’t listed on her fiancé’s health directive and HIPAA waiver, she could not get anyone to update her on his condition once he entered the hospital. Naturally, she didn’t give up trying to get in touch, and eventually someone told her that he wasn’t in the ICU anymore. She was enormously relieved, but when she hadn’t heard anything else by the next day, she called again for news. Fi...

Getting Legal Documents Signed During COVID -- Another Reason to Not Go It Alone Wills, trusts, health care directives, powers of attorney, and legal guardian nominations are on many of our hearts and minds as COVID-19 compels us to face our own fragility and mortality. It’s not as if we didn’t know we would all die (or become incapacitated) one day , but, within our current reality, that “one day” has become an ever more real possibility. And one way to feel more in control over what’s happening out there is to make sure we all have our legal affairs in order at home. That way, if it does happen now, our families aren’t left with a big mess to clean up while they are grieving. If you are trying to get your financial house in order right now, you may be just getting some basic documents in place. You may even be doing it yourself. If that’s the case, it’s very important for you to know that the cost of a failed plan can be very high for the people you love. Plus, i...

The Most Important Legal and Financial Actions To Take Right Now As you already know,   the COVID-19 pandemic means nothing is business as usual. Many states have implemented a “shelter-in-place” order to limit the spread of the disease; however, if you are not in a place with such an order, or if your parents are not following it, you may want to refer to our previous blog on how to talk to your parents and get them to stay home. Once you have attended to your (and your parents’) immediate needs, it will be time to consider more long term precautions. In this time of stress and chaos, your parents may be resistant to talking about estate planning. It may feel too pessimistic to plan for the worst in the midst of a scary situation. However, that’s exactly why it’s the most important time to do so. Plus, since hopefully you are staying inside, you may actually have the time to dedicate to getting these tasks taken care of. Here are actions you can, and should, take...