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By Estate Planning Attorney Rick Law.  Senior Advocate and Elder Law attorney at the Estate Planning Center of Law Elder Law. Located in Aurora, IL, Law Elder Law provides wills and trusts, estate planning, litigation, probate, guardianship services, and much more. It is important to understand when planning that you can appoint multiple agents. For example, someone who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s may wish to appoint one person to take care of finances (power of attorney for financial matters) and another to take care of personal and health-care decisions (power of attorney for health care). Family members typically act as the agent(s), but some people choose to ask a close friend to serve as their agent. Whomever you may pick as an agent, it is critical to pick someone that you really trust.  It is imperative that your agent be on board with the decisions that you have made regarding organ donations and life support. Life support certainly is the crux of a durable power of attorney for health care. There are many examples of cases in which the appointed agent has refused to follow through on the direction provided by the principal. This often involves cases in which the principal does not want life support and the agent is incapable of removing life support. Frequently, this happens when a parent appoints a child to serve as agent. Often, people are pressured to pick a family member, but that family member may not be the right choice for religious, moral, or other reasons. The family member may not be willing to follow the wishes of someone who did not want life support. That is an example of choosing the wrong power of attorney agent. If you’re ready to get your ducks in a row, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.   Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Senior Advocate Rick Law, Lead Attorney at the Estate Planning Center of Law Elder Law in Western Chicagoland.  A Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR) is an example of an “Advance Directive”. The Supreme Court held in Cruzan v. Director of Missouri Department of Health, that individuals have a constitutional right to refuse any medical treatment, including ventilators and feeding tubes. A DNR instructs health-care professionals not to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation if a person’s heart stops or the person stops breathing. DNRs are signed by a doctor and put in the individual’s medical chart. It is important to point out that the DNR is the only advance directive that is also a doctor’s order or a physician’s order for medical care. Many people have come to believe that signing a DNR in some manner is a substitute for having a valid health-care power of attorney or a living will. However, due to the narrowness of the scope of authority of a DNR, it is not a substitute.  It has nothing to do with any other circumstance as far as dealing with life-prolonging treatment. If a client is in a coma or a vegetative state and wants to die with dignity, a DNR will be powerless to help. It is a very specific declaration of “don’t give me treatment if we’re dealing with a medical condition called full cardiopulmonary arrest or medical condition called a pre-arrested emergency.” It provides no guidance otherwise. The DNR may be invalidated if the immediate cause of a respiratory or cardiac arrest is related to trauma or mechanical airway obstruction. That means if someone has a DNR and is experiencing a respiratory or cardiac arrest, but it turns out that the person choked on a hotdog, when the EMT shows up and realizes that the person is choking and can’t breathe, the EMT will remove that obstruction from the airway. The spouse can wave that DNR in front of the EMT and the EMT will pay no attention because the person is choking—from a traumatic cause, not a chronic condition. If it’s time to get your ducks in a row, call our office at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Estate Planning Attorney Rick Law, Managing Partner at the Estate Planning Center of Law Elder Law in Chicagoland An Estate Planning attorney can draft a power of attorney for property (financial decisions) to include one or more specific actions, such as for paying bills; but a power of attorney for property may also be all encompassing. All-encompassing documents include the authority to cash checks, withdraw funds from bank accounts, pay taxes, trade stock, buy or sell property, take out loans, or take other actions. The all-encompassing document is best for clients with Alzheimer’s, but it is very important that they have an agent that they fully trust. The following items are important to consider when having a power of attorney for financial decisions drafted:
  • the power to apply for public benefits entitlements like Medicaid
  • the power to make gifts from the client to specified loved ones such as a spouse and/or disabled child
  • the power to do Medicaid-related asset protection
  • if there is a trust, the power to remove and/or add assets to the trust
Lawyers can draft a financial power of attorney to be “durable,” which means that it remains valid and in effect even after the client becomes incapacitated. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Rick Law, Senior advocate at the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in West Suburban Chicago, IL There are several limitations that Illinois has put on health-care agencies. For example, neither the attending physician nor any other health-care provider may act as agent under a health-care power of attorney.  Other forms of powers of attorney may be chosen by the principal to provide powers and protection similar to a statutory short-form power of attorney for health care. A health-care power of attorney in Illinois requires a signing and a witness to that signing. The purpose of the power of attorney is to give your designated agent broad powers to make health-care decisions for you, including the power to require, consent to, or withdraw from treatment for any physical or mental condition and to admit or discharge you from any hospital, home, or other institution. You (the “principal”) may name successor agents under this version of power-of-attorney, but not co-agents. It is important to note that this form does not impose a duty upon the agent to make such health-care decisions, so it is important to select an agent who will agree to make those decisions as the principal would wish. Any agent who is acting for you has a duty to act in good faith for the principal’s benefit and to use due care, competence, and diligence.  Your agent must also act in accordance with the law and with the statements in the power of attorney form.  Your agent is also required to keep a record of all significant actions taken as agent. Unless you specifically limits the period of time that the power of attorney will be in effect, the agent may exercise the powers throughout your lifetime, even after you become disabled. A court can take away the powers of the agent if the court finds that the agent is not acting properly. A power of attorney for health care can be revoked at any time, without regard to your mental or physical condition, by any of the following methods:
  • by being obliterated, burnt, torn, or otherwise destroyed or defaced in a manner indicating intention to revoke;
  • by a written revocation of the document signed and dated by the principal or person acting at the direction of the principal; or
  • by an oral or any other expression of the intent to revoke the document in the presence of a witness 18 years of age or older who signs and dates a writing confirming that such expression of intent was made.
If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.   Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Attorney Rick Law of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law.  Providing estate planning, wills, trusts, guardianship, and probate services to the Chicagoland area in Illinois Another example of a powerful Power of Attorney is having the opportunity to pre-emptively say, “You know what? I don’t want antibiotics either.” Everyone has a constitutional right to refuse medical treatments. But if you don’t take the opportunity to put it writing while you can still make your own healthcare decisions, it’s possible that you may be given antibiotics against your will. We now know that if a person lives to be 85 years old, that person has close to a 50 percent chance of having dementia.Sit down with an elder law attorney and let them know what kind of treatment you want if you don’t have a terminal illness, but you do have dementia. You owe it to yourself to take the proper steps about what you want in the event of a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or another dementia-related illness.  What do you want if you can’t make your own decisions, but you’re not necessarily diagnosed as terminally ill? That’s the question…..What do you want? For the 50 percent of the people who wind up with dementia, the typical health-care power of attorney or living will can be powerless to help them.  You need a powerful power of attorney.  If the power is not listed in the power of attorney, the agent does not have it. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Attorney Rick Law of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in Aurora, Illinois. Providing wills, trusts, probate, guardianship, estate plans, Medicaid crisis planning and much more to the residents of Kane and Kendall Counties One afternoon, I met with a client who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, along with his wife of many years and a caring adult daughter.  I proceeded to tell him that they needed to discuss one of the most difficult questions that families in crisis need to ask themselves—they needed to talk about feeding tubes, hydration/water, ventilators, and other life-prolonging treatment.  These things are all the more difficult to deal with when looking at a man who has a high probability of being alive, incapable, and subject to the life-and-death decision making of his loved ones. I took a breath and then looked into the client’s eyes… “Your family needs to hear from you how you feel about life-prolonging treatment.  I understand that you have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.  One of the things that may happen with Parkinson’s is that you may get to the point where you won’t be able to make your own life-and-death decisions.  You may not actually die from Parkinson’s disease—but you have a high probability of dying from a complication of Parkinson’s.  You may get to the point where the doctor comes to your family and says that you are unable to make a decision about life support, and they must decide whether or not you should have a feeding tube or hydration or a ventilator.  What do you want your family to do?  Do you want these things?” He looked at me, and then to his family. He answered firmly, “I do not want that! Just keep me comfortable.” That opened the conversation with his wife and his daughter.  We asked them if they understood his wishes and if they would be able to make sure that his wishes were respected when other family members show up and insist that “we have to do everything we can for Dad!” They were given a chance to talk, and after that the daughter said, “Dad, I am so grateful that I know what you want.  It gives me such peace of mind to be sure about what you would want us to do.” This is one of the most important reasons to visit a qualified Elder Law attorney. It is essential to get these items down in writing. Discussing end-of-life decisions with an attorney can be difficult, but it will give them clarity and peace of mind when these life support issues arise. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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by Senior Advocate and Estate Planning Lawyer Rick Law of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law.  Located in Aurora, IL just off the I-88 Tollway, LEL provides wills and trusts, probate, guardianship, Medicaid crisis planning, estate planning and more. An example of a powerful power of attorney is one that includes language that individuals can choose to elect, if they wish, so that they can tell their families what to do in situations, even though they may not be diagnosed as being terminally ill. Most living wills and health-care power of attorney statutory forms include instructions regarding life-prolonging treatment. The triggering event for the decision to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging treatment is usually a diagnosis by the principal’s attending physician that the principal suffers from a terminal condition, injury, or illness from which death is imminent. Many physicians do not diagnose either Alzheimer’s-type dementia or other dementias as a “terminal condition, injury, or illness from which death is imminent.” It is very common for doctors to recommend a feeding tube when a person with late stage dementia is no longer able to swallow. An individual’s opinions on life-prolonging treatment when and if they have dementia and need a feeding tube should be customized and added into their health-care power of attorney. Your lawyer can take the guilt off your family by asking you to say either “No, I don’t want that” or “Yes, I want my life prolonged.” A powerful Power of Attorney gives an individual the opportunity to say, “You know what? I don’t want antibiotics either.” Everyone has a constitutional right to refuse medical treatments. But if you don’t include that information in your power of attorney, there is the potential that you may be given antibiotics against your will. Sit down with your lawyer and discuss what kind of treatment you would want if you don’t have a terminal illness, but are diagnosed with dementia. We now know that if a person lives to be 85 years old, that person has close to a 50 percent chance of having dementia. An experienced elder law attorney can sit you down and accomplish some decision making about what to tell your family in the event that you get Alzheimer’s or another dementia and you are to the point that you can’t make your own decisions, but you’re not necessarily diagnosed as terminally ill. The first move is yours to make. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care. 
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By Illinois Senior Advocate Rick Law.  Estate Planning Attorney and Medicaid Crisis Planner in Aurora, IL just off the I-88 tollway. In Illinois, “qualifying condition” means the existence of one or more of the following conditions in a patient certified in writing in the patient’s medical record by the attending physician and by at least one other qualified physician:
  • (1) “Terminal condition,” means an illness or injury for which there is no reasonable prospect of cure or recovery, death is imminent, and the application of life sustaining treatments would only prolong the dying process. (2) “Permanent unconsciousness” is a condition that, in a high degree of medical certainty, [i] will last permanently, without improvement, [ii] in which thought, sensation, purposeful action, social interaction, and awareness of self and environment are absent, and [iii] for which initiating or continuing life sustaining treatment, in light of the patient’s medical condition, provides only minimal medical benefit and (3) “incurable or irreversible condition” means an illness or injury [i] for which there is no reasonable prospect of cure or recovery, [ii] that ultimately would cause the patient’s death even if life sustaining treatment is initiated or continued, [iii] that imposes severe pain or otherwise imposes an inhumane burden on the patient and [iv] for which initiating and continuing life sustaining treatment in light of the patient’s medical condition provides only minimal medical benefits.
Notice that in the qualifying conditions above, there is no mention of a condition in which a person has Alzheimer’s or dementia and gets to the point of not being able to swallow.  It does not say what to do, because a person with Alzheimer’s or dementia is not likely to be diagnosed as being terminally ill. A terminal illness or condition is most often defined by state law as the triggering event for the use of a living will and/or end-of-life decision making by an agent under a health-care power of attorney. It is common for a “terminal illness or condition” to indicate that a person will die “imminently,” as that term is defined in state law. Physicians do understand that Alzheimer’s is progressive and fatal, but they often do not call it a terminal illness that puts the patient in a condition in which they will die “imminently.” This distinction causes great confusion among agents under a health-care power of attorney and family members, as it is unclear to them what decisions the principal would want regarding life-prolonging health care. The majority of those who are affected with Alzheimer’s do not die of Alzheimer’s disease, but from other causes prior to Alzheimer’s disease running to the end of its progressive, degenerative, and fatal trajectory. That is why it is so important to have a powerful power of attorney with qualifying conditions that are suited to the desires of the signee and clearly describe the principal’s desires. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.   
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By Rick Rick Law, Senior Advocate and Estate Planning Lawyer at Law Elder Law in Chicago, IL. An important fact to keep in mind when looking at the statutory health-care power of attorney (or the living will) is that the terms and concepts that are used are defined in a manner that would surprise most of us. For example, in Illinois the definition of terminal illness is quite detailed, yet does not apply to many issues with dementia that the average person might assume would fall under the definition of terminal. However, we already know that most doctors are probably not going to say that a person with Alzheimer’s is terminal—even if that person cannot swallow and requires a feeding tube to stay alive. When most people hear that “death is imminent,” they probably think that death is days or perhaps a week or two away. Not too many people would consider six months to be imminent. One becomes qualified for hospice if death is imminent, meaning that the person will die within the next six months. “Life-sustaining treatment” is defined as any medical treatment, procedure, or intervention that in the judgment of the attending physician, when applied to a patient with a qualifying condition, would not be effective to remove the qualifying condition or would serve only to prolong the dying process. Those procedures can include, but are not limited to, assisted ventilation, renal dialysis, surgical procedures, blood transfusions, and the administration of drugs, antibiotics, and artificial nutrition and hydration. Qualifying conditions are the conditions that trigger a living will to come into effect. They typically trigger a doctor to talk to a family with a health-care power of attorney about making an end-of-life decision or cause an attending physician to recommend no further life treatment or to make a referral to hospice. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.   
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By Rick Law of the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law in Aurora, Illinois.  Providing wills and trusts, probate, guardianship and more to residents of Kane, DuPage, Will and Kendall Counties in Illinois. Two of the most important documents to put in place when dealing with Alzheimer’s are durable powers of attorney for financial matters and health-care decisions. These documents are important because they allow a family member or trusted friend to have legal authority to carry out the wishes of people suffering from Alzheimer’s once they are no longer able to speak or act for themselves. Powers of attorney are relatively simple, inexpensive legal documents that essentially allow another person to act for the person signing the documents. The person granting the authority by signing the documents is referred to as the principal and the person being granted the authority is the agent or attorney of fact. This person stands in for the principal and is authorized to take almost any action for the principal so long as that action is included in the powers of attorney document. A “durable” power of attorney continues in effect after the principal becomes incapacitated and is unable to supervise and direct the agent. The following are questions your lawyer should go over with you before granting powers of attorney:
  • Can you trust the person you wish to grant powers of attorney to carry out your wishes and/or act in your best interest?
  • Are there any unresolved family conflicts that have not been addressed? While it may be difficult, It is important to communicate with all family members when making end-of-life planning decisions. Your attorney may be able to help with this.
The mental capacity required for appointment of a power of attorney agent is different from the capacity required to manage one’s own affairs. It is possible to be capable of appointing an agent yet lack the capacity to make certain types of personal decisions. Individuals appointing an agent must be able to comprehend that they have a choice whether or not to appoint an agent and are capable of making that choice. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.    
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