Challenges of Estate Planning During COVID-19
COVID-19 has made everything more complicated and riskier, from getting food to taking care of family members. With the current stay-at-home orders, and with the likelihood of stores and businesses slowly reopening, how can you best care for your elderly parent or loved one?
Essential Elder Law Documents for COVID-19
The most critical estate planning documents for an elderly parent or loved one to have during this period of time are the financial power of attorney and the advance directive. Also important, but not critical for day-to-day activity, is the last will and testament.
Steps to Take During COVID-19
- The first step for families to take is to locate these estate planning documents now.
- Then, make sure you have complete copies of all of the relevant documents.
- It is not uncommon to have older versions of your estate planning documents. However, it is important that you are only using the most recent versions to avoid confusion.
- For the financial power of attorney and advance directive, in many cases you can use copies of the documents in lieu of the originals.
We’re Here to Help During COVID-19
We understand that these are uncertain times. Now, more than ever, is when your loved ones need you to be their advocate in planning for the future.
As an experienced elder law firm in Maryland, we’re happy to guide you through the process of preparing the essential documents of estate planning. Please call us at (410) 296-8166 x292.
To learn more, please see the COVID-19 resource that discusses the unique issues for each estate planning document: financial power of attorney, advance directive, last will and testament.