You can plan within your Living Trust to remain in control in the event you become mentally incapacitated by dementia or Alzheimer’s. You can plan for Mental Disability in the form of having a panel which would consist of a physician and family members or friends to decide if they need to turn on the Mental Disability Planning that is part of your Living Trust. This is in the situation where a closed head injury, dementia, Alzheimer’s or some other mental illness or mental disability precludes you from handling your own affairs. The question in North Carolina is, “Are you able to make and communicate important decisions concerning your person, family, or property?” There are also various expansions off of that, but that is the core question.
Your Panel can decide if you are unable to handle your affairs and, therefore, turn on your Mental Disability Provisions. Under your Mental Disability Provisions, you can provide for whom your money is to take care of besides you. It could be your spouse or a dependent child. You can also provide for whether or not you want to be kept as active as possible—even though you may not be able to handle money, you may be good relationally and want to stay active in the social or church groups in which you participate.
You can provide for whether or not you want to stay home as long as medically and financially feasible. If you have to be in a care facility, you may direct which care facility you want to be in. You may also want to direct what geographic area you live in. You can choose individuals who will pick the care facility if one is necessary.
Most find this preferable to a Guardianship Proceeding through the Court system. This in essence is a custody case and can be very ugly and very expensive. Most times you can avoid that with good Mental Disability Planning.
At the Law Firm of Steven Andrew Jackson, Attorney and Counsellor at Law, we have helped hundreds of families protect themselves and their loved ones, avoid Estate Taxes and Probate Costs, and keep their Estate Plans current with the law through The Customized Protective Estate Planning Solution™.