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Regardless of your personal circumstances or choices, it's vital for every adult in the state of arizona to have an incapacity plan in place as soon as possible. Learn more about Missouri estate planning in this presentation.
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INCAPACITY AND INCAPACITY
PLANS IN ARIZONA
Larry Deason and Shawn GarnerEstate Planning and Elder Law Attorneys in Yuma Arizona
Regardless of Your Personal Circumstances or Choices, It's Vital For Every Adult in the State of Arizona to
Have an Incapacity Plan in Place as Soon as Possible
Incapacity and Incapacity Plans in Arizona Deason Garner Law Firm2
In this discussion of important estate planning topics, we're going to begin a two-part discussion on the topic of incapacity, and incapacity plans. Incapacity planning is an essential part of
creating an estate plan, and no estate plan can be complete unless it addresses incapacity planning issues.
Regardless of your personal circumstances or choices, it's vital for every adult in the
state of Arizona to have an incapacity plan in place as soon as possible. Failing to have
such a plan can be a significant mistake. To help explain why that's true, let's take a
look at some important issues.
Capacity
The idea of being a capable adult is probably one that you take for granted on a daily
basis. You probably rarely think about the legal realities involved in making choices. For
example, have you ever thought to consider what laws are involved in deciding where
you want to eat for lunch? How about choosing where you want to live, or where you
want your children to go to school?
All of these choices take the idea of capacity as a given. Under the law, adults who have
the mental ability to make reasonable decisions are presumed to be legally capable.
This means that they have the authority to make their own decisions without outside
approval, review, or acceptance.
In general, every person age 18 or older in the state of Arizona has legal capacity unless
a court says otherwise.
Incapacity and Incapacity Plans in Arizona Deason Garner Law Firm3
Incapacity
If capacity is the legal ability to make decisions on your own, incapacity is the inability to
do so. When a person is legally incapacitated, that person cannot make legally binding
decisions. An incapacitated person, for example, cannot make choices about health
care, financial issues, or even more mundane day-to-day decisions. Incapacitated
people, unlike those who have capacity, need others to make decisions on their behalf.
Even though there are many ways an otherwise capable person can become
incapacitated, incapacitation typically results from one of two main causes: age and
unexpected illness or injury. All of us lose some abilities as we age, but some people lose
Incapacity and Incapacity Plans in Arizona Deason Garner Law Firm4
so much of their cognitive abilities that they are no longer capable of making choices.
Similarly, people suffering from serious medical conditions, such as dementia, or those
who have been involved in a serious accident can also lose capacity.
Incapacity Plans
Losing the ability to make choices is not something a lot of us want to think about.
However, when you develop an incapacity plan, that's exactly what you have to do. Your
incapacity plan is designed to allow you to make choices now, while you are still
capable. Should you one day lose your capacity, the incapacity planning choices you
make through your plan will take effect.
In other words, you can effectively allow yourself the opportunity to make decisions
while you are incapacitated if you take the time to create an incapacity plan now, while
you are still capable.
However, it's vital to point out that, should you become incapacitated prior to making a
plan, you will no longer have the ability to make choices on your own.
Incapacity Planning Tools
So if your incapacity plan allows you to make choices, what kind of choices will you be
able to make? Though we will discuss in more detail the specific kinds of tools and
choices your plan will allow you to address in our next discussion, for now what's
important to understand is that your plan will allow you to make two main types of
choices: choices about representatives and choices about specific events.
When you become incapacitated, a court will have to appoint someone to make choices
on your behalf. However, if you make an incapacity plan, you effectively take this choice
out of the court hands, and make the decision yourself.
Incapacity and Incapacity Plans in Arizona Deason Garner Law Firm5
Similarly, the kinds of choices your representative will make when you are incapacitated
will cover any number of different topics. For example, your representative will make
decisions about the kinds of healthcare treatments you receive, as well as decisions
about how to manage your finances, your property, and make other day-to-day choices.
When you develop an incapacity plan, you can address these specific, individual choices
in as much or as little detail as you like.
For example, let's say that you suffer serious injury that leaves you comatose. In your
incapacity plan you appoint your spouse as your representative and give your spouse
the freedom to make whatever decisions she deems appropriate.
Incapacity and Incapacity Plans in Arizona Deason Garner Law Firm6
Let's contrast this with a slightly different situation. Let's say that, instead of naming
your spouse as your representative, you choose several people to serve as your
representative over different areas of your life. Each of these you give permission to
make decisions, but you also limit the kinds of decisions they make by including specific
directions in your incapacity planning tools.
Individualized Plans
If there is a single lesson you should take away from this discussion on incapacity
planning, it's this; everyone needs a plan, and every plan needs to be individually
tailored to fit the needs of the person making it. Even though the legal issues and
questions your plan addresses will likely be the same issues that every other plan
addresses, no one can make your incapacity planning decisions for you. It's up to you to
make the difficult choices and to ensure that you make them in a legally enforceable
manner.
The attorneys and staff at Deason Garner can help you create a plan regardless of your
age, circumstances, or individual needs. Though we have years of experience assisting
our clients developing incapacity plans, all of our experience will not do you any good
until you take the time to reach out to us for assistance. Once you do, we can sit down
with you, discuss the relevant issues, and get started on the process of crafting an
incapacity plan that offers you as many protections as possible.
Incapacity and Incapacity Plans in Arizona Deason Garner Law Firm7
About the Authors
Larry Deason and his staff have been providing quality legal services for clients since 1971. Their mission is to assist people who are concerned about protecting their families from the devastating legal and financial impacts of disability, death, and taxes.
Because he believes in the importance of an informed public, Deason spends considerable time educating consumers about Estate Planning issues. He writes a monthly Estate Planning column in The Sun, and the firm he regularly conducts Free monthly seminars on various Estate Planning topics.
Deason and Garner, along with their staff, that in many instances, Living Trusts offer clients a proven and powerful tool for protecting their families from the expense and delay of probate, as well as a strategy for eliminating or minimizing federal taxes.
Deason’s firm is staffed with paralegals and consultants who are experienced and trained in a variety of Estate Planning areas. The aim of each member of the firm is to help clients accomplish their Estate Planning goals while taking the mystery out of the whole process. We take pride in knowing that our clients feel “peace of mind” once the planning process is completed.
The firm is always available for both Arizona residents and visitors alike to offer additional information about options with available with estate planning.
Deason Garner Law Firm242 West 28th Street, Suite A
Yuma, AZ 85364Phone: (928) 783-4575
www.DeasonGarnerLaw.com
Larry Deason
Shawn Garner
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