A New Look at Living Wills

One of the first steps in the wealth management process that we promote and follow at DWCM is developing an emergency fund, having adequate insurance, and cash flow planning.  It is all about having the protection that you need based upon your own individual situation.  We also include estate planning as part of this step.

Estate planning is more than who you leave your assets too.  We work with a network of expert professional  who help address end of life issues as well such as living wills.  Living wills, which were once thought of as a simple document to be followed have come into question with advances in technology.

"Most of us have come to the conclusion that the way to get over the vagueness is to get someone to speak for you," says Robert M. Veatch, a professor of medical ethics at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington, D.C.

"We had a naive view that if you had a document, that would solve the problem," says Daniel Callahan, co-founder and president emeritus of the Hastings Center, a Garrison, N.Y., nonprofit that was an early champion of living wills. "In practice," he says, "all sorts of problems arise" that aren't spelled out in the documents.

This WSJ article addresses some of the issue facing living wills and actions you can do to make sure that your wishes are fully carried out.

• The problem with living wills is that most people can't articulate what they want, says ethicist Angela Fagerlin, co-director of the University of Michigan-affiliated Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine in Ann Arbor. And even if they can, family members often don't properly interpret those wishes.