Living Will vs. HPOA
What is the difference between a Living Will and a Healthcare Power Of Attorney?
Planning is incredibly important when it comes to your family’s future. A little bit of planning goes a long way. It helps alleviate the painful decisions your family may have to make when facing a situation such as you being on life support or whether to donate your organs should you pass. If you do some planning today, it will take care of your family in the future and for years to come.
What's a Living Will versus a Healthcare Power of Attorney?
A Living Will decides today whether you want to be on life support, what is going to happen to you in a permanently unconscious state or when they can pull the plug. It also talks about your organs. Do you want your organs to be donated?
The biggest thing to understand is with a Living Will, you decide today how you want your situation to be handled in the future.
Now, with the Healthcare Power of Attorney, you designate someone else to make these decisions in the future. When you designate someone else to make that decision in the future, it allows them to have a clearer picture of your entire situation. It allows them to have a clearer picture of your chances of recovery and your chances of success.
Whereas the Living Will is a decision that you make today, and the Healthcare Power of Attorney are you planning today that somebody else will decide what's best for you in the future when they have a complete picture?
The Healthcare Power of Attorney and the Living Will both cover your healthcare needs in terms of what kind of treatment you're going to receive, and the facilities that you can or can't go to.
The biggest distinction is decision-making. Do you want to make the decision today versus someone else being able to make the decision tomorrow? We at Littlejohn Law highly recommend that you get a Healthcare Power of Attorney and let someone decide tomorrow because they can have a complete picture of what's going on in your affairs.
Now, if you are not sure which one's best for you, give Littlejohn Law a call at 740-346-2899 so that we can help you answer these important questions.
Littlejohn Law, LLC
The Real Estate and Probate Law Firm
352 Main Street
Wintersville, OH 43953
www.littlejohnlawllc.com
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“Remember, where there's a Will, there's a way, and where there's no Will, then there's probate”
