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Our firm of attorneys/lawyers in Houston, McKinney, Denton and Dallas, Texas can assist you in all areas of family law including those areas related to the end of a martial relationship and planning for a marital relationship. Many of these issues can be resolved by agreement and the terms of the agreement can be put in a formal, legal document such as a separation agreement, premarital agreement, or consent order. Our family law lawyers/attorneys located in Denton, Dallas and Houston, Texas can negotiate the terms of and can prepare these legal documents for you. If the issues can’t be resolved by agreement, we may need to ask the court to hear the case and make the necessary decisions. Our family law attorney/lawyer firms located in Dallas, Houston and Denton, Texas have years of experience negotiating and litigating family law issues.
The mere thought of planning for your death or disability may be unsettling at best, but think about it - if you could actually ease the pain of death through thoughtful preparation and planning, would you? Well, you can. That is, you have the ability to ease the emotional hardship and inconvenience of your physical demise for your family and friends by taking care of various aspects of your death while you are still alive. For example, you can pre-plan your funeral and burial, divide your estate between your beneficiaries, pay your debts, and even determine the disposition of your remains. You can take the pressure of making these and other personal decisions from the shoulders of your loved ones at your death and make them yourself, in advance.
Many people have executed their last will and testament to provide for the division of their estate upon their death. A simple, well-planned will is the cornerstone of any estate plan and if you don't have one, you should obviously get one. Unfortunately, a will only becomes effective at your death and there are many decisions to make upon becoming incapacitated or declared incompetent that a will would not, and could not accomplish. For example, who will care and provide for you physically, who will have the authority to make healthcare decisions for you, who will determine whether to continue life-sustaining medical procedures if you are rendered terminally ill, who will handle your investments and pay your debts, who will care for your spouse and children? Through careful pre-planning, you can take the guesswork out of these decisions, and make them yourself, while you have the time and ability to think them through thoroughly.
The Texas legislature has made possible several means by which you can predetermine what will happen should you become unable to care for yourself, incompetent to make healthcare decisions, or suffer an untimely death (isn't it always). First, you need a will. With a will you can plan who gets what when you die. You can be very specific and give the pots and pans to your oldest daughter because the youngest doesn't cook. Or you can be very general and divide your entire estate 50-50 between the two and let them fight over the pots and pans after you are gone. Most wills provide some specific bequests (transfers of specific items to certain beneficiaries) and leave the rest (the residuary estate) to be divided proportionately between the beneficiaries. If you have minor children, you can establish a trust for each child, and appoint a trustee to manage the trusts for the benefit of your children. You can specify how and when you want the funds distributed to the children, and under what conditions. By will, you can appoint a guardian for your children, avoiding the necessity for state intervention in determining their care and best interest. You can plan the payment of your debts, taxes, and other obligations so your loved ones are not left footing the bill for your death and other preexisting obligations. You can also appoint an agent to be in charge of the disposition of your remains, assuring your wishes will be carried out in that regard. A will is a necessity in planning your demise, but remember, your will only becomes effective when you die.
You will also need some way to determine what will happen and who will care for you should you become incompetent or otherwise unable to care for yourself and your personal business. You can appoint the person you want to make healthcare decisions for you through a power of attorney for healthcare. With this instrument, you can set out the guidelines for your appointee to follow in making healthcare decisions which are statutorily defined as "consent, refusal to consent, or withdrawal of consent to healthcare, treatment, service, or procedure to maintain, diagnose, or treat [your] physical or mental condition." As with any power of attorney, the appointee is limited to the powers stated in the instrument, so you should include the specific decisions you want your appointee to make, or you can grant a very broad power to make healthcare decisions, which will be interpreted to be all-inclusive. Hospitals, physicians, insurance companies, and others involved in providing you treatment will be more inclined to provide necessary services based on your appointee's decisions knowing he or she has been delegated your authority to act on your behalf. As you can see, the power of attorney for healthcare is very important and should be an integral part of your estate plan.
You can further provide for the management of your property through a general durable power of attorney. Such a power can become effective immediately when it is signed, but more typically it will become effective when you are diagnosed by two doctors as being unable or incompetent to make necessary decisions to handle your estate. This instrument is similar to the healthcare power of attorney, but it allows you to appoint a trusted person to make decisions regarding real and personal property transactions; investments; business operating decisions; banking, insurance, and annuity transactions; claims and litigation; personal and family maintenance; social security, Medicare and other governmental program decisions; retirement; and tax matters, among other things. The power is very flexible and can grant the appointee very broad authority, or it can be limited to certain purposes. The power is very useful and should be a part of any estate plan you put into place.
If you become terminal, through accident or illness, and artificial procedures are necessary to keep you alive, your previously executed directive to physicians can let the attending doctors and your family know whether you desire to maintain that artificially prolonged existence, or whether you wish to be allowed to die naturally. You can also appoint the person you wish to have the power to implement your directive and "pull the plug," terminating those life-sustaining procedures, should that be your desire. By making this decision before the circumstance arises, you can alleviate the emotional stress otherwise placed on your spouse or other members of your family.
While not pleasant and often very difficult to do, considering, discussing and carefully planning for the possibility of incompetence or other disability, and the eventuality of death can give you some peace of mind. You can determine the course of action regarding your healthcare, management of your estate, termination of artificial life-sustaining procedures, division of your estate, guardianship and care of your children, and all other vital dimensions of your current existence. By making these decisions prior to need you can remove the pressure from your loved ones and control your own demise in a dignified manner. Through careful thought and consideration you can plan your demise and make it easy on your family and other loved ones, and give yourself some peace of mind in the process.
Holmes, Diggs, Eames & Puhl
Campbell Centre I
North Tower
8350 N. Central Expressway
Suite 1100
Dallas, Texas 75206
Phone: 214.520.8100
Facsimile: 214.520.6565
Website: www.texasfamilylawyers.com
E-mail: e-mail@texfamlaw.com