Today, March 31, 2009, is the fourth anniversary of the death of Terry Schiavo. Those of us in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater area likely remember Mrs. Schiavo’s case very well. She collapsed in 1990 and remained in a persistent vegetative state for almost 15 years. During that time, much was discussed (and debated in court) as to what her wishes were regarding life sustaining medicine since she did not have a written declaration, which we often call a Living Will or Advance Directive.

In general terms, a Living Will states your wishes to discontinue life-sustaining procedures in the event you are suffering from a terminal condition, an end-stage condition or a persistent vegetative state (or, as most would say “no brain activity”). Living Wills have been authorized for many years now and should be considered by those who want to create some level of certainty with their care in those instances. Oftentimes, a Living Will is coupled with a Health Care Surrogate Designation and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, both of which are designed to permit a person to act on your behalf if you cannot make your own medical decisions.

As many of us remember, Mrs. Schiavo eventually died 13 days after her feeding tube was removed despite efforts to block those actions by her parents and attempts by the State government to intervene. With four years having passed since her death, have any lessons been learned?

Hopefully, Mrs. Schiavo’s life and death remind us to do at least two things: (1) write your wishes in a Living Will (if those are indeed your wishes) and (2) tell your loved ones what your wishes are. These things probably won’t make matters easier for our families, since death never is easy. But, perhaps they will give our families an opportunity to say good-bye in your terms.

Last Saturday, March 21, 2009, I was a guest on Comprehensive Wealth Planning with John Boyer, CFP to discuss estate planning topics.  We weren’t able to cover everything during that one show, so we will be airing the second installment today, March 28, 2009 on Tampa radio, AM 860 at 10:00 am ET.  We will be addressing some myths about Estate Planning and the use of Revocable Living Trusts, and hope that you can join us for this show.

If you have any questions about the content of the show, please give me a call at 813-254-0044.  The show will be posted on our website, www.trustedcounselors.com, next week if you aren’t able to listen on Saturday.

We always start our initial estate planning meetings with new clients by asking the questions that seem to be some of the most challenging hurdles in the process:

Who is going to raise your children if you cannot?

When should your children get your money? 

Who should manage your money for your children?

You probably see a theme here.  Questions usually start and end with providing for and protecting our precious gifts: our children.  In my mind, naming a guardian is probably the most difficult decision that parents can make in estate planning, so they need to give it a lot of thought.  Some of the important factors that should go into naming a guardian include common beliefs, location and health of your proposed guardians. 

I believe that good guardians should share your values, ethics and spirituality.  For my wife and me, we want our girls to be raised in a family that teaches them to know, love and serve God.  That is the most important thing to us. Whatever your values are, you need to make sure that your proposed guardian shares those values, and if they don’t, then they are probably the wrong choice for your children.

Proximity or location of your guardian may also be important.  It’s bad enough that mom and dad are gone for the kids.  Having to move out of state, leave their friends and start a new school, would probably make their mourning even more difficult.  Now that’s not to say that out of state guardians are a bad choice, but in-state guardians (or local guardians) may be better in many instances.  Parents may wish to consider the psychological aspect of uprooting their children in the event of their deaths.  If that is of concern, then their Wills might state their wishes for their children to remain in their home state and for the guardian to be permitted to live in their home to raise their children.

And, last, but not least, a proposed guardian should be in good health. It sounds obvious to mention health, but having talked to many clients about guardianship selection, it is curious to learn at times that a proposed guardian is suffering from a medical condition that might result in them being unable to serve as guardian.  In that case, if the proposed guardian is suffering from some health issues, but is otherwise a great choice, then naming a successor guardian in your Last Will & Testament may be worthwhile.