The 3 Most Common Mistakes in a Health Care Proxy
In Massachusetts, a health care proxy allows another person to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to make such decisions yourself. If you fail to complete a health care proxy, then your family would need to petition the court to become your guardian in order to get the proper authority to make medical decisions for you. To avoid putting your family through this public, costly process, and to make sure the right person is named to make medical decisions for you with proper instruction, you can create a health care proxy.
To make sure your health care proxy does what it’s intended to do, you’ll want to avoid these three common mistakes:
Not naming a backup health care proxy. When it comes to life or death situations, you may not have the luxury of waiting around for your primary health care proxy to make a decision. It’s possible that your first choice is not available or otherwise unable to be reached by your healthcare professionals for whatever reason. In such a scenario, you can’t afford not to have a backup decision maker so be sure to list at least two contacts in your health care proxy document.
Forgetting to include a medical directive. Although Massachusetts doesn’t have a legally binding living will or medical directive, you should still make sure one is included in your health care proxy to give proper instruction to your health care proxy with regards to how you wish to be treated in certain life threatening scenarios. You’ll want to work with your estate planning attorney to make sure your directive covers a sufficient scope of scenarios to ensure your wishes are followed and to also alleviate some of the burden placed on your health care proxy.
Failing to give a copy to your physician. The health care proxy doesn’t do you any good if no one knows it exists. As soon as you complete your proxy, make sure that your doctor’s office has a copy of it. It’s also a good practice to give an electronic copy to your primary agent and backup agent to be safe. Most estate planning attorneys will also retain a copy of your health care proxy as another safeguard - you just need to be sure your family is aware of who your estate planning attorney is in case they need to reach out to him or her.
If you can avoid these 3 common mistakes, then you are one step closer to the peace of mind that you are looking for. If you have any additional questions or concerns about health care proxies or estate planning in general, then please feel free to contact me at any time for your free personal consultation.
All the best,
Joseph M. Lento, JD
Your Local Estate Planning Attorney
Perennial Estate Planning
477 Main St, Stoneham, MA 02180
Phone: (781) 202-6368
Email: JLento@PerennialTrust.com
Wills & Trust to protect your family’s future and give you peace of mind.
