Power Of Attorney
A power of attorney appoints an agent to act on your client’s behalf with regard to personal and financial matters, excluding health-care issues. A durable power of attorney remains in effect when a client becomes incapacitated; however, once he or she passes away, the power of attorney is no longer valid.

A power of attorney can be limited in the powers that it confers upon the agent. Further, certain institutions (namely, financial institutions) may require individuals to sign a specific power of attorney that operates at that institution only. However, most states now have statutory language that,  if drafted into the client’s power, must be accepted by financial institutions.  Make sure the client’s power comports with state law.

Health-care Power Of Attorney/Living Will
A health-care power of attorney appoints an agent to act on your client’s behalf with regard to health-care matters if he or she becomes incapacitated. Many health-care powers of attorney include a living will. (A living will can also be a separate document.)  A living will is a declaration of one’s wishes regarding medical treatment that sustains or prolongs life by extraordinary means. These are critical to have in place before a client is under medical care. It is very stressful for someone to execute a living will as he or she is about to undergo a serious medical procedure.

Digital Estate Planning
The use of Web site logins and passwords has skyrocketed. Digital planning around stored data is evolving with regard to executor rights, email accounts, business records, file hosting services, online financial services, social media websites, and photo storage.

Since the mid-1990s, a proliferation of Web sites and services have surfaced to assist in death planning, including:

  • Legacy Locker--allows access to all online accounts to a designated loved one.
  • My Wonderful Life--wheres individuals can leave letters, document wishes, plan for pets, write an obituary, and even design a headstone.
  • Getyourshittogether.org—a Web site created by Chanel Reynolds whose life fell into financial chaos when her 43-year old husband died suddenly.  The Web site offers advice to users with regards to creating and organizing important documents, and also includes a checklist.

It is important for advisors to either request a copy of, or provide to clients their own “Beyond the Will” document and maintain it on file or in the client’s vault/portal.

With so many documentation alternatives, why are so few people communicating their wishes? If we don’t require this as part of our planning repertoire, then we have failed our clients.

Our business is built on assumptions as we guide our clients through various life transitions. Ultimately, we all die. Are we prepared for this final stage? Are the plans comprehensive? As Jim Elliott has been quoted as saying, "When it comes time to die, make sure that's all you have to do is die." This is one area of planning that should not be ignored.  No planning or inadequate planning results in myriad unintended consequences of neglect, erroneous assumptions, wishful thinking, and dysfunctional family dynamics.

Nothing is more certain than death, and nothing is more uncertain than the timing. If you can talk about the end of life while your clients are still healthy and understand their hopes and fears centered around illness and dying, you can make a significant contribution to their families. What better way to ensure your planning relationship continues with the next generation than by making the loss of their loved ones more orderly and with far less stress? 

If your clients don't design their own life plan, chances are they'll fall into someone else's death plan.