5.5 million Americans are currently suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and 1 in 3 of us our likely to be impacted by it during our lifetimes. As the baby boomer generation continues to age, the importance of planning in advance to protect ourselves as best as possible against the potential impact of this awful disease becomes all the more important.
If you have a loved one who is starting to show the early signs of Alzheimer’s or dementia, it’s vitally important that you begin to take certain steps as soon as possible before the individual’s incompetence becomes totally and complete. Here is a wonderful article that I recently came across that does a fantastic job of discussing what steps to take if you suspect that a parent or other loved one is beginning to show one or more of the signs of these conditions.
One of the many important steps that you’ll need to take as soon as possible is to make sure that the individual showing such signs has a fundamentally sound estate plan in place. Likewise, make absolutely sure that part of the plan is a very well drafted and detailed durable power of attorney document that will allow one or more person’s to step in and act on the individual’s should their condition worsen.
Read the article and educate yourself as much as possible about Alzheimer’s and dementia. The more you know, the more ready you’ll be should a loved one be impacted by the disease. If you have questions or would like to learn more about estate planning and the important documents that we should all have in place, give us a call today at (412) 381-7370 or visit our law firm online at www.americanwillsandestates.com
http://betterhealthwhileaging.net/qa-possible-elderly-incompetence-what-you-can-do/
