Proactive Planning: Tips for Alzheimer's and Dementia Families

What if you could take the stress out of future healthcare decisions for yourself and your loved ones? Join us for a crucial conversation with attorney Jordan McIntyre and managing attorney Samantha Gordon from our Charlotte office, as we explore the essential steps to shield yourself from the potential impacts of dementia or Alzheimer's. We promise to equip you with the knowledge to establish vital documents like the General Durable Power of Attorney and the Healthcare Power of Attorney, ensuring that your loved ones can seamlessly make decisions on your behalf without the emotional turmoil of guardianship proceedings.

Throughout this enlightening discussion, Samantha and I emphasize why it's important not to assume that marriage automatically grants authority in these matters. Learn how a financial power of attorney can empower your appointed agent to manage real property, bank accounts, and even long-term care arrangements. By setting up these documents while you still have the capacity, you can safeguard your family's future against unnecessary court interventions. This episode is your guide to proactive planning for peace of mind, effectively protecting your future and those you care about the most.

Episode Transcript

Jordan McIntyre (00:00):
Hey everyone, welcome to the Elder Law Report.
I'm attorney Jordan McIntyre atMcIntyre Elder Law and I'm
joined by the wonderful SamanthaGordon attorney, samantha
Gordon, who is our managingattorney at our Charlotte office
.

Samantha Gordon (00:11):
Hey, everybody happy to be here.
So today we're going to betalking about if you are facing
a situation where your loved onemay be, or you're considering
because it's something that hasgone on in your family that one
of your family members has haddementia or Alzheimer's and

(00:32):
you're concerned that what ifthat happens to me?
What am I going to do to makesure that I protect myself?
That's what we're going to talkabout today to ensure that
everyone that's listeningunderstands the important
foundational documents thatcould be necessary to ensure
that, if you were faced withthat situation, you have

(00:53):
everything in place to ensurethat your loved ones have the
ability to make decisions foryou and don't have to go to the
court to ask the court to beable to make decisions for you.
And so, jordan, if you want tojust kind of touch on you know
what documents would someonewant to consider if they're
concerned about a dementia orAlzheimer's diagnosis, or if
they have a family member thatthey're concerned about that or

(01:15):
has been diagnosed but still hascapacity?

Jordan McIntyre (01:19):
Well, I think it's important to establish
these legal documents early,before capacity declines, and
there are two main documents Iwould be concerned with.
That would be the GeneralDurable Power of Attorney and
the Healthcare Power of Attorney.
The General Durable Power ofAttorney is a legal document
that will allow you to appointan agent or an attorney, in fact

(01:41):
, to manage legal and financialaffairs for you, or an attorney,
in fact, to manage legal andfinancial affairs for you, and
this could be great assistancein getting you qualified for a
benefit like Medicaid if youneeded special assistance for
long-term care, as well ashaving someone who has the
ability to make health caredecisions for you if you needed

(02:02):
them to while you were in thehospital, or to release medical
records that are protected byHIPAA.
You want to make sure that youhave these documents in place so
someone can assist you ifyou're worried about being in a
position in the future whereyou're not going to have the
cognitive awareness to makethese decisions for yourself.

Samantha Gordon (02:20):
Yeah, definitely so.
A financial power of attorney.
If I appoint an agent, you knowwhat can they do?
Well, they have a lot ofauthority, possibly, right, and
so a financial power of attorney.
Whatever you do financially foryourself, your financial power
of attorney more than likelywill encompass that and give
those authorities and powers toyour agent.

(02:40):
So handling real propertydecisions, handling bank
accounts, handling retirementaccounts, possibly, like you
said, hiring an attorney for along-term care situation.
So it's super, super important,because even individuals who
are married do not have thatlegal authority just because you
are married.
You need to have a document inplace that actually says who can

(03:04):
make your decisions for you,for your financial matters, also
your health matters.
If you don't have one of thesedocuments in place, then a
guardianship could happen, andguardianships are super
emotional.
They're much more costly thangetting these documents in place
and it's asking the court to bethe guardian of your own loved
one where, if you had a documentin place that you appointed

(03:26):
someone to make those decisionsfor you, that can be implemented
if something were to happen,rather than having to wait maybe
45 days to go to a courthearing, sit in front of a judge
and explain why you should bemaking decisions for your mother
, your husband, whoever it maybe, and so it just really
ensures that you choose who youwant to make your mother, your
husband, whoever it may be andso it just really ensures that
you choose who you want to makeyour decisions.

(03:47):
But it also makes that processa lot easier for your loved ones
and it doesn't present thoseroadblocks which, jordan, you
and I see that a lot and it'syou know, it's heartbreaking
when someone comes in and theydon't know what to do because
the documents were not properlyset up, these estate planning,
foundational documents for asituation that maybe you never
thought would happen.
No one has a crystal ball.

(04:08):
You don't know what's going tohappen, and so getting those
documents in place is just so,so, so important.
But you know, if I were in ahospital and I did not have a
healthcare power of attorney andsay I wasn't married, you know
who's going to be able to makemy healthcare decisions for me,
like what happens, jordan well,in that situation we might have

(04:29):
to explore guardianship if it'snecessary yeah right, and I
think you never want to leavethat up to chance.

Jordan McIntyre (04:37):
yeah right, independent third party attorney
called the guardian ad litemappointed who will make a report
, and it's not guaranteed that aloved one will make those
decisions for you or beappointed the guardian.
I think you want to communicatewith family early to avoid
these types of scenarios and youwant a loved one appointed to

(04:57):
make these healthcare decisionsfor you.
You don't want to leave it upto chance, right, and you want
to have the control over who'sgoing to make these decisions.
You want to have it be somebodythat you trust and that's going
to give you peace of mind forthe rest of your life, and I
think that's what we offer hereat McIntyre Out of All.

Samantha Gordon (05:15):
Definitely peace of mind, for sure.
Peace of mind for you, peace ofmind for your loved ones.
Making sure that you have aguide for your loved ones and
that they know that if somethingwere to happen and someone
needs to step in and make adecision, that there is a guide
that allows them to do that foryou and there's no roadblocks
and there's something in placethat says, hey, this is the

(05:37):
person I've chosen, and now theycan handle those obstacles that
may come across your life, yoursituation, that maybe you just
really didn't think would everhappen.
So super, super importantfinancial power of attorney,
which is also super, superimportant.
Financial power of attorney,which is also known as the
general durable power ofattorney.
Healthcare power of attorney.
Healthcare power of attorneyyou can state if you have

(05:58):
religious instructions, if youwant to have an autopsy done or
do not, if you want to be buried, cremated, like that document
can be a really greatinstruction list and instruction
guide to your loved one on whatyou want done for your health.
And if something were to happento you, if you would want to be
buried or cremated or you knowwhat might happen after the fact

(06:20):
, and so those documents arejust so, so, so important.

Jordan McIntyre (06:27):
Yeah.
So just to close, I thinkanytime that you're facing these
life challenges, proactiveplanning is the only way to ease
this burden right Mentally,financially, legally and by
securing the right legaldocuments and protecting
yourself, you're only going toprovide yourself and your loved

(06:49):
ones with uh peace of mind andthe best possible future
planning for you.
I think that either I orsamantha gordon would love to
meet with you um and preparethese documents for you.
You can visit the website atwwwmcelderlawcom, where we have

(07:10):
plenty of articles, blogs,videos on our estate planning
documents, and it will only helpyou if you come in for a
consult.
We have offices in Shelby,charlotte and Hendersonville and
you can give us a call at1-888-999-6600.

Samantha Gordon (07:28):
Awesome Thanks, Jordan.
It was great chatting with you.

Jordan McIntyre (07:30):
Of course.

Samantha Gordon (07:31):
Bye.