"What is a Living Will?" is a common question among new clients. This brief video blog is an introduction to the concept of Living Will, a concept confusing even for lawyers.
What is a Living Will? Firstly, your document known as your “Will” or “Last Will” or more formally as your “Last Will and Testament” is a completely different document from the document called your “Living Will.”.
In fact, the term “Living Will” is probably confusing even to many lawyers who do not practice estate planning law - primarily because a “Living Will” does the exact opposite of what you may intuitively think.
A Living Will declares to specific parties your end of life wishes. Specifically, if you are no longer capable of communicating your wishes yourself, a Living Will declares under what circumstances you want to be kept alive and under what circumstances you want to be allowed to die.
Unlike a more general Medical or Healthcare power of attorney (which in some states is called a Healthcare Directive), your living will deals specifically with end-of-life decisions. It is a document crafted typically by an attorney in addition to any will or medical power of attorney you may already have and is an important part of your estate plan.
Having a Living Will may serve to greatly alleviate the pain and perhaps even emotions of guilt encountered by a child or spouse who has to make the decision to let you die if you don’t leave such instructions. We can help you create a Living Will in Arizona.
For a complimentary evaluation of your case, please schedule a free consultation with us today.
To watch more from our video blog click here. Also to know more about Wills click here. If you want to know more about "What is a Will?" click here.
Watching any of our video blogs creates no attorney-client relationship. We are Tax Lawyers who also practice Estate Planning Law.