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 North Carolina 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 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

An advance directive is a legal document giving instructions about the medical treatment and care you want to receive if you later become incapacitated. Advance directives in North Carolina include the following documents:

• Health Care Power of Attorney: You can authorize someone to make health care decisions for you if you become so sick you are unable to communicate or make these decisions yourself
• Living Will: You can indicate whether you want life prolonging procedures, like artificial respirators, to be withheld if you develop a terminal condition and are near death, become permanently unconscious or develop irreversible dementia
• Advance Instructions for Mental Health Treatment: You can indicate the type of mental health treatment you do or don't want to receive in the event you become unable to communicate or make mental health treatment choices for yourself. You may also authorize someone to make mental health care decisions for you if you become unable to make them 

Powers of Attorney

In North Carolina, 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 North Carolina, you can make a valid will if you are at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Your will must be in writing and it must be signed by you or someone who signs for you at your request and in your presence. Your will must also be signed by two witnesses who see you sign your will or see you acknowledge your will or signature.

North Carolina law does recognize holographic or handwritten wills, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and important parts of the document are in the testator's (will maker's) handwriting. The will must be found among the testator's valuable papers or in a safe-deposit box or other safe place where it was deposited for safekeeping.

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 North Carolina 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