Durable Power for Healthcare
The Durable Power for Healthcare is an advance directive that lets you appoint someone to take care of your when you are ill. This is an amazing document. Traditionally the law has not let legal power of attorneys be open ended. They had to have both a start date and an end date. With a Durable Power for Healthcare you can appoint some one in advance to direct your affairs if you have a medical emergency. The important thing is to get this taken care of.
I recently read an article about the heir to the L’Oreal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt. Mrs. Bettencourt and her daughter have been involved in a very public feud over the fate of the L’Oreal fortune, France’s third-largest estate. For many years her daughter has been arguing that her mother is mentally unfit to manage her wealth. Recently the court has ruled that the daughter is correct. Mrs Battencourt can no longer take care of her own affairs and they put her daughter in charge. It is too bad that Mrs batten court did not have a Durable Power for Healthcare.
Mrs Bettencourt’s lawyer plans to appeal the decision, but for now Liliane Bettencourt wealth and property is being controlled by her daughter Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers. This is the very type of case that can be prevented if you have signed a Durable Power for Healthcare. Under the terms of this document you can define how you will be determined incompetent and who will take over managing your estate. You do not need to have someone who you hate take over your affairs.
The important thing is to make certain that you sign this document before you get in trouble.
