During These Grim Times, Estate Planning Offers Peace of Mind

Due to the increased air of mortality because of the coronavirus pandemic, suddenly people are rushing to call estate planners and tax attorneys. “In recent weeks, I’ve gotten calls from people I haven’t heard from in 10 years,” Tom O’Rourke said. One of them was a healthy 85-year-old that wanted to ensure that their advance directive containing explicit instructions to not be placed on a ventilator was iron clad with no possibility of misinterpretation.

“All of a sudden, they turn on the TV at night and they see young people, old people, famous people, rich people, poor people, all kinds of people getting coronavirus,” he said. “And I think it strikes a chord with them and makes them realize that they’re not going to be around forever.”

The simple advice for this stressful time? Review everything. Make sure that the person or persons listed on your advance directive and medical power of attorney is someone in whom you have total confidence and who is geographically nearby. “The only thing you can be confident of is things are going to change,” O’Rourke said. “And things do change over time and that, many times, is when you need to revisit your estate plan.”

See Peter Musurlian, During These Grim Times, Estate Planning Offers Peace of Mind, Federal News, April 15, 2020.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.