Estate Planning & Alzheimer’s

A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is a tremendous blow to both the diagnosed person and the person’s family and friends.

It is obvious that estate planning needs to be done promptly but it is often not on the top of diagnosed person’s task list.

A relatively recent article stresses the importance of estate planning for a person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s:

Don’t delay legal arrangements. Prepare documents immediately, while the person with Alzheimer’s is still relatively lucid. That includes wills, powers of attorney and end-of-life decisions. “All the mechanical things have to happen sooner rather than later,” [Donna] Schempp says” [program director for the Family Caregiver Alliance].

Janet Kornblum, Love Guides in Alzheimer’s Care, USA Today, July 14, 2005, at 8D.