People prepare for death in various ways. They will draft simple wills (good idea!), buy burial plots, and take out final expense insurance policies. These are all excellent financial choices and show a person wants to protect survivors from paying significant death expenses. They will concentrate on costs incurred by death itself, but there’s one thing missing in their planning: cost related to the act of dying.
Death will come in various forms, but it isn’t always immediate. Heart attacks, brain seizures, and sudden accidents can leave a body just clinging to life. Healthcare providers will maintain a victim on life support unless instructed otherwise. This creates a state of limbo that has severe financial consequences.
Delay, Delay, Delay
An unconscious victim can be in a vegetative state indefinitely. Beneficiaries must wait until the last breath is drawn. It can be months or even years for that. The estate assets that could be used to pay a debt or buy a house cannot be touched.
Medical deductibles will renew every year. The victim’s estate can be swallowed by meeting the annual deductible requirements. Employers ultimately must deal with a growing claims experience brought on by life support efforts. All this can happen if there isn’t a living will.
Group legal plans may offer living will service but not all do this. Countrywide Pre-Paid Legal Services offers living will services that can be part of an organization’s group legal plan.
Professionals Compose the Living Will
Countrywide does not use online templates to draft simple wills. We instead use a nationwide network of experienced attorneys with at least one in a Countrywide client’s community. Our group legal plan members have priority status and arranging a meeting with the lawyer is easy.
Emotional Intelligence is Essential
Death is not an easy subject. Few people want to discuss dying, and a living will makes dealing with mortality simple. A plan member tells the attorney what medical procedures are permissible and at what point all life support efforts must end. The group legal plan member’s wishes are respected, and the attorney drafts the paperwork.
Empathy is one of our best pre-paid legal services. Countrywide lawyers are recruited for their personal skills in addition to legal knowledge. We expect those legal experts to listen carefully to the plan members’ concerns and supply solutions instead of lectures. Countrywide also gives highly efficient administration to all the benefits. No one must wait an unreasonable period.
The Employer’s Contribution
The best way to guarantee that employees will use benefits is to have the employer choose the options. We ask decision-makers to decide what services will be a part of the plan, and we will insert those into the final document.
Incidentally, Countrywide also offers medical powers of attorney composition. This document will designate who makes the medical decisions for a victim if that person is not able to communicate. Healthcare providers appreciate this because it means there is someone who assumes responsibility for care decisions. We suggest that only somebody whom the group legal plan member trusts implicitly have the power to make the decisions. Regardless of whatever is selected, the medical powers of attorney mean that things move much faster.
A living will is not a simple will. We do offer pre-paid legal services to help a person prepare that last will, but the living will deals with medical care. Either document is an essential part of sound financial planning for the end. Beneficiaries will not be forced to wait as an unresponsive victim lingers. What the individual wants as far as final healthcare is spelled out in the living will. It brings closure to what is a very emotional episode.
If you would like to know more about Countrywide and its benefits, please feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience. We want to tell you all about Countrywide and how we can provide excellent pre-paid legal services to your employees.