Our firm offers a basic estate plan that includes an advance directive for health care (ADHC), a financial power of attorney and a simple will.
Suppose you become incapacitated and unable to decisions for yourself. Unless you have properly drafted and executed documents that provide for the management of your financial affairs and your health care, a court of law will decide what happens to your property during the time you are not able to make decisions for yourself and eventually, what happens to you.
A financial power of attorney lets you appoint a trusted family member or friend as agent to manage your financial affairs in the event you are no longer able to manage to do so due to impaired mental condition of incompetency, mental illness, dementia, senility or other debility.
In 2007, the state legislature passed the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care Act. A document which complies with Georgia law called an advance directive for health care (ADHC) replaces the legal documents called durable power of attorney for health care and living will. The (ADHC) is a legal document in which you appoint your health care agent, and in which you may direct the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures if you are in a terminal condition or a state of permanent unconsciousness.
Every adult should have a properly drafted and executed will. Whether you have many assets or a few, are married or unmarried, have minor children or no children, you should have a will. With a will, your estate is distributed according to your wishes and you nominate the person that you want to be the guardian of your children. When you die without a will, what happens to your property and who cares for your children is determined in accordance with state statutes or by a court of law. A will must be properly drafted and executed to be valid and a will executed in another state may not be valid in Georgia.