What Is Estate Planning?

You can save your loved ones a lot of money and frustration by devising a plan for the management of your health care and property if you become severely disabled or pass away.

A Kansas attorney who does estate planning can help you with:

• Advance health care directives that tell how you want your health care managed if you ever become too ill to speak for yourself
• Powers of attorney that appoint someone to manage your property and sign legal papers for you if you become unable to take care of your own affairs
• Wills and probate that transfer your property to selected beneficiaries upon your death
• Trusts that provide for the care of children or disabled persons, minimize taxes or protect against creditors
• Ways to avoid probate that transfer property at death - insurance, gifts, joint ownership of property, bank accounts
• Medicaid eligibility planning

Advance Directives for Medical Care

Advance directives for medical care are written instructions that tell how you want your health care managed if you become incapacitated.

Kansas law provides for two types of advance directives:

• Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care: You can use this document to select someone to be your agent to make your health care decisions if you ever become too ill to make them yourself. You may give your agent broad or limited authority to make decisions. You can also include specific instructions regarding your wishes
• Living Will: You can use a Living Will to indicate whether you want life prolonging procedures, like mechanical respirators, to be withheld if you develop a terminal condition. Regardless of whether you have a Living Will, you will be provided with medications and care necessary to ease pain and provide comfort 

Powers of Attorney

In Kansas, you can sign a durable power of attorney to appoint someone to handle your assets if you become severely disabled. A power of attorney should include the power to:

• Manage and transfer all assets
• Deal with the IRS
• Make gifts on your behalf
• Create and amend any trusts you set up

You don't need to transfer any assets when you sign a power of attorney. It is a good idea to keep the person you've chosen informed about your ongoing financial matters.

Making a Will

In Kansas, you can make a valid will if you are at least 18 years old, or 16 years old or older if married, and of sound mind. Your will must generally be in writing and signed at the end by you or by another at your direction and in your presence.

The will must also be signed by two witnesses who see you sign the will or hear you acknowledge your will. The witnesses should not be beneficiaries of the will.

In the will you can select a guardian for your minor children and designate a person, called an executor or personal representative, to manage the distribution of your property after your death.

You can change your will by making a new will that replaces or revokes the old one or by making an addition to the will, called a codicil. Changes such as a marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of a child, new property ownership or moving to another state should cause you to review your will and consider whether it should be changed to fit your new situation.

A Kansas lawyer who does estate planning can explain the consequences of some of the most basic choices you must make in writing your will. It makes sense to have an estate planning lawyer draft your will so you avoid costly mistakes and achieve your intended results.

Related Resources on Lawyers.com^sm

- Contact an Estate Planning attorney in your area for specific advice, and read about Selecting a Good Estate Planning Lawyer
- Need a form? Access hundreds of Personal Legal Forms, including an Living Will, Power of Attorney and Last Will & Testament
- Read Trust Basics, Gloria Allred Wills & Estate Planning Tips and other Estate Planning articles and information
- Legal Dictionary
- Visit the Legal Forums for discussions on Estates, Wills & Probate topics