To all of you fathers reading this, Happy Father’s Day. I hope your kids plan something nice for you. I know my three kids are often as excited as I am on this day.
If you're a father, I also have a question to ask about your estate plan. Have you prepared your estate plan to make sure your children are taken care of in case something happens to you? No one likes to think about these things, and I would not wish bad things on anyone, but if you are a father, you need to make sure these things are taken care of. I have seen some terrible results by parents who have not done their estate plan (probably because they were young and didn’t think anything would happen to them).
Not having your estate plan completed often leads to more complications and more expense than even having the most basic documents in place. Also, it is much better to take care of this ahead of time, rather than when a crisis is actually occurring.
So when you wake up on Father’s Day later this month, enjoy the gifts your children give you, but also think about giving them a gift in return. Completing your estate plan is not just a gift to them, but is a gift of peace of mind to yourself as well.
Cheers,
Patrick J. Roth, Esq.,
CPA
Make Sure Your Loved Ones Can Get Your Medical Info.
A critical piece of your estate plan (which I proposed above) is a HIPAA Release. If you’re in the hospital, you probably want certain family members, and possibly even trusted friends, to be
able to get information about your condition or prognosis. To make sure this happens, you will need to plan ahead.
A federal law called HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is designed to protect your health care privacy, and says that medical personnel can’t disclose your health care information to unauthorized people. Only a small number of people are authorized under HIPAA… So if you want other people to know about your condition, you have to authorize them in advance.
You can do this by signing a “HIPAA release form” specifying who can receive information and what type of information each person can receive. For instance, you could allow certain people to receive general information about you, but nothing highly personal such as mental health records, addiction treatment, HIV status, etc. You can also limit the period of time during which the authorization will be in effect.
Surprisingly, there is no one general form for this purpose. Many health care providers have their own forms, but they may only be valid at their provider locations. That is why we prepare a general form based on the federal law so you can use it anywhere.
If you’re ready to get your estate plan in order, including a HIPAA release, call us. We would be happy to help you with this.
Selecting A Guardian For Your Minor Children
In our first article we discussed the importance of planning, especially for parents with minor children. If you are a parent with minor children, one of the most difficult decisions can be selecting a guardian for your children. To help with that decision we have created an article that includes tips and advice about choosing a guardian. Just click here to get your copy and when you are ready to prepare your plan, call us. We would love to help you through this process.
Recipe Corner - BLT Dip (Serves Many)
This time of year seems to be when we start going to more and more events. If you like BLTs, you will love this quick and easy BLT dip recipe.
Ingredients:
2 Cups of Sour Cream
2 Cups Mayonnaise
2 lbs (or desired amount) of Cooked and Crumbled Bacon
