Is This Thing On?
I recently had a chance to review the 2007 LexisNexis estate planning survey. You can find the survey here. Unfortunately their findings show 55% of the general population do not have a will. If that’s not bad enough, the percentage jumps among non-white populations. 59% of adults do not have a living will and 62% of adults do not have a health care representative according to the survey.
Those of you that know me are aware of my personal crusade to educate everyone I find about estate planning issues. Let me point out two cases of particular concern based on the survey. First, nearly 60% of adults do not have a living will. All I need to say about that is Terry Schiavo. If you’re not familiar with the horrible journey of Terry Schiavo you can read about it here.
Second, over 62% of adults do not have a health care representative. I recently worked on a case that highlighted the importance of getting this done. The facility an elderly woman resided at was pushing to have someone appointed to make end of life health care decisions for this woman. As you can guess, the elderly woman did not have a living will or a health care representative. At the end of the day, life or death medical decisions for this woman are going to be decided by a court appointed representative that for the most part knows nothing about her or her wishes. Maybe it is just me, but I find that very disturbing. What do you think?
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