BUSI 354 Week 1 Discussion Board Forum 1 Example

Discussion Board Forum 1: The Basic Estate Planning Documents

BUSI 354 Estate Planning, Discussion Board Forum 1 Thread and Reply

Thread by [Student Name]

The forum prompt and the classmate's thread are composites; the textbook, research and Scripture cited are real.

Every adult needs both a will and advance medical directives, and for most people the medical documents will be needed first.

Dalton and Langdon (2017) describe the basic documents as working at different times. A will speaks only at death, directing who receives probate property and, for parents, who should raise minor children. A durable power of attorney lets a chosen agent manage financial affairs if the person becomes incapacitated. Advance medical directives do two jobs: a durable medical power of attorney names who will decide for the client, and a living will records what treatment the client wants or refuses near the end of life. Without them, a court or a state's default rules decide. Intestacy statutes divide property by a fixed formula, a guardianship proceeding may be needed to manage an incapacitated person's accounts, and hospitals turn to a statutory order of relatives for medical consent, which may put an estranged spouse or a disagreeing set of siblings in charge.

The medical documents matter because incapacity often comes before death. Silveira et al. (2010) studied older Americans who had died and found that many had needed decisions made about treatment at the end of life, and that a large share of those had lost the capacity to make the decisions themselves. Most patients who had written down their wishes received treatment consistent with them. Detering et al. (2010) tested advance care planning in a randomized trial with older hospital patients and found that patients' end-of-life wishes were far more likely to be known and respected, and that family members left behind reported less stress, anxiety and depression. A health care directive is as much a gift to the family as a protection for the patient.

Scripture treats preparation for death as faithful, not morbid. When Hezekiah fell ill, Isaiah told him to set his house in order, for he would die (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, 2 Kings 20:1). Setting one's house in order today means signing the documents that keep family members from guessing, or arguing, at the hardest moment of their lives.

My recommendation is that every adult client sign a durable power of attorney and advance directives at the same meeting as the will, and review all of them after any major life event, such as a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death in the family or a move to another state, since the documents and the law behind them can fall out of step with a client's life.

Reply to Tyler

Tyler, your thread argued that young adults with few assets can postpone a will, since intestacy rules would send their small estates to the right people anyway. For a single adult without children, that may often be true. But your thread did not consider young parents. Dalton and Langdon (2017) explain that a will is the document in which parents nominate a guardian for minor children. Without it, a court chooses, possibly someone the parents would never have picked, and relatives may contest the choice. A young couple's most important asset may be their children, not their bank account. Life insurance is the other reason: a young parent with a modest estate may still leave a large death benefit, and without a will or trust a minor beneficiary cannot receive it directly, so a court-supervised arrangement may be required.

The Psalmist asks God to teach us to number our days so we may get a heart of wisdom (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Psalm 90:12). Would you change your recommendation for a 25-year-old with a newborn?

References

Dalton, M. A., & Langdon, T. P. (2017). Estate planning (8th ed.). Money Education.

Detering, K. M., Hancock, A. D., Reade, M. C., & Silvester, W. (2010). The impact of advance care planning on end of life care in elderly patients: Randomised controlled trial. BMJ, 340, c1345. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c1345

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Silveira, M. J., Kim, S. Y. H., & Langa, K. M. (2010). Advance directives and outcomes of surrogate decision making before death. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(13), 1211-1218. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa0907901