If you were unexpectedly in the hospital for an extended stay, what is the name of the person who will handle your finances? Who would go through your mail/email to pay bills and work with your employer and insurance company for any medical or disability benefits? If you were unconscious in the hospital, who have you already legally authorized to make medical decisions on your behalf? Or, like most people, have you put off thinking about this much, let alone done anything about it?
It shouldn’t take long to list your accounts or gather your financial files in one place for someone else to step-up and manage. Guess what happens when you fail to do this? Nobody can figure out your financial life, things fall through the cracks, utilities get cut off, your credit rating plummets, insurance coverages lapse leaving you exposed; the list of unfavorable outcomes is very long. Unfortunately, I know people who have gone through this exact scenario and no one was able to help prevent or salvage problems until it was too late (including home foreclosure). If you have a spouse, it is likely that one of you does most of the money management. Could the other spouse easily put together how to manage the money, or is it unorganized and non-obvious? It is of utmost important to write out your record-keeping process, list out all of the steps, and then periodically update it as it changes.
The next task is getting a Medical Power of Attorney; it is an easy process. Go to the 1 or 2 nearest hospitals where you’re likely to end up, ask for their Medical Power of Attorney forms, fill them and submit them back to the hospitals. It is likely a waste of time and money to have an attorney draft this document because hospitals/doctors rarely accept any Medical Power of Attorney that isn’t drafted by their own attorneys. (Many people learn of this too late, for example most financial institutions don’t accept Financial Power of Attorney forms except their own.) It is the same scenario with your bank, ask for their Financial Power of Attorney form and use that one. Do this for any financial institutions that you use. Unless you have a complicated financial life, there may be no need to have an attorney draft additional Power of Attorney documents for you.
Please take some time to complete these two tasks for your benefit and your family’s peace of mind. I recommend that anyone you care about completes them as well.