What Legal Instruments Assist You with Elder Care Planning?

Elder care involves planning for long-term care and putting decisions in place in the event that you reach a point when you can no longer manage your own affairs or make decisions about health care. An experienced elder law attorney can help you consider options and draft the documentation.

The New York State Health Care Proxy Law allows competent adults to appoint someone they trust to act as their health care agent and make decisions for them when they can no longer decide for themselves. New York provides a guidebook to help health care professionals understand New York’s Health Care Proxy law. A health care proxy makes the same types of decisions that persons would make for themselves if they were competent. Health care proxies are not substitutes for living wills. You can still draft a living will which contains your end-of-life decisions about whether to resuscitate, use feeding tubes or receive pain medication should your condition become terminal. Living wills serve as guidelines for health care proxies and help a proxy understand your wishes. Powers of attorney are other legal tools that enable you to assign someone to handle your financial and legal affairs on your behalf.

Through elder care planning, you provide guidance for your loved ones so they can carry out your wishes. Knowing that an effective plan is in place is a relief, because they are not left guessing or having to decide who should take responsibility for assisting you. By working with an elder law attorney in Brooklyn and planning ahead, you can rest assured that matters are handled in the most optimum way.

Goldberg Sager & Associates has more than 25 years of experience helping clients with elder care issues and looks forward to being of service.