Episode 6 Levels of Estate Planning and POLST/Advanced Directives

In this episode of Living Care Radio, host and elder law attorney, Darol Tuttle, discusses the five levels of estate planning. Analogizing in a fun way to a video game, Darol discusses the entry level of estate planning which is simply putting into place powers of attorney and so called "Living Will." More about Living Wills in a moment. Next, Darol introduces the idea of "Level 2" which is simply adding to Level 1 with a Last Will and Testament. It is imperative, if married, to include a trust created at death for the benefit of the surviving spouse that holds funds for his or her long term care. The reason that this is important is to finance skilled nursing costs with jeopardizing important Medicaid benefits. This is often overlooked in planning and can cause the assets of the surviving spouse to be depleted unnecessarily. Level three involves the use of a Revocable Living Trust or other devices to avoid probate. The rest of the show was dedicated to higher levels of planning to finance care. Darol again interviewed Lisa Doyle, owner of CayCare and a registered nurse, and discussed an incident in California in which a 87 year old woman suffered a heart attack in a common area of an Independent Living Community and a staff member of the community refused to perform CPR, citing company policy. The incident was discussed from the perspective of Washington law, which provides for a Physician's Order on Life Sustaining Treatment and Advanced Directives. Advanced Directives are also known as Living Wills and Darol discusses the two documents and there differences.