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 Montana estate planning attorney can help you with:

• Advance health care directives telling how you want your health care managed if you ever become too ill to speak for yourself
• Powers of attorney appointing 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 transferring your property to selected beneficiaries upon your death
• Trusts providing 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 Health Care Directives

An advance health care directive is a legal document that gives instructions about the medical treatment and care you want to receive if you later become too ill to communicate or make decisions. Advance health care directives in Montana can include one or more of the following parts:

• Living Will: You can instruct your doctor and other health care providers to withhold life-prolonging treatments, like artificial respiration or feeding tubes, if you become terminally ill and near death.
• Power of Attorney for Health Care: You may select someone, such as a friend, your spouse, or other family member, to be your health care representative. This person can then make decisions about your medical treatment if you ever become so sick you're unable to make these decisions for yourself.
• Special Instructions: You may give additional instructions about your end-of-life preferences. You can tell whether you want to donate organs or other body parts after your death. You can indicate whether you want your remains cremated or buried.

You must be at least 18 years old to have an Advance Health Care Directive in Montana. To be valid, you must sign your directive in front of two witnesses over age 18. The witnesses must also sign the directive. Getting the document notarized is a good idea, but it's not required.

You may file your advance directive with the Montana Attorney General's End-of-Life Registry. The Registry then provides your advance directive to your doctors and the people you authorize free of charge.

Powers of Attorney

In Montana, 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 Montana, you can make a valid will if you are at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Your will must be in writing. You must sign your will, or you must have someone sign it for you at your direction and in your presence.

Your will must also be signed by two witnesses. The witnesses must sign within a reasonable time after they see you sign your will or see you acknowledge your signature or your will.

Montana law does recognize holographic, or handwritten, wills as valid, even if they aren't witnessed. The signature and important parts of the will must be in the handwriting of the testator (person making the will).

In the will you can

• Distribute your property
• Select a guardian for your minor children
• Name an executor or personal representative to manage the probate of your will and 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 Montana 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 Law Lawyer in your area for specific legal advice, and read about Trusts & Estates: Selecting a Good 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