Elder Law Report
Elder Law Report
Emergency Planning For Seniors
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The moments that test a family rarely arrive with warning. A fall, a stroke, a winter storm that knocks out power for days—suddenly decisions pile up while the tools to make them are out of reach. We sat down to map a calm, practical path through those chaotic hours by focusing on two essentials: the health care power of attorney and the general durable power of attorney.
First, we unpack how a health care power of attorney ensures your voice is heard when you can’t speak for yourself. You’ll hear how to choose a trusted agent, clarify your medical values, and make sure hospitals, primary care providers, and specialists already have your documents on file. Then we turn to the durable power of attorney for finances—why banks and credit unions should review it in advance, what authority your agent needs to pay bills and manage accounts, and how this quiet planning step prevents cascading problems during a hospital stay or evacuation.
We also dig into the logistics that keep a plan working when the lights go out. A single, clearly labeled binder holds originals, copies, medication lists, allergies, insurance cards, and contact sheets for doctors and agents. We talk about digital backups, encrypted USB drives, and simple phone trees that function when cell service and internet fail. Drawing lessons from recent hurricanes and looming winter weather, we highlight how families who pre-share documents and roles move faster, feel calmer, and make better choices under pressure.
By the end, you’ll have a checklist you can act on today: pick agents who know your wishes, place documents with providers and banks, centralize everything, and rehearse how to use it. If you want help tailoring a plan for your situation, visit mcelderlaw.com or book a free consultation at our Hendersonville, Charlotte, or Shelby offices. Subscribe, share this with someone you love, and leave a review so more families can find practical guidance when it matters most.
Hi, and welcome to the Elder Law Report from McIntyre Elder Law. Today's topic is emergency planning for seniors. I'm Jane Deerwester in our Hendersonville office. I am joined virtually today by attorney Haley Mattson in Charlotte.
Haley Matson:Hi.
Jane Dearwester:Hi, Haley. All right. Today we're going to talk about issues that come up quite often in our elder law practice, which is emergency planning for seniors. And we never know when an emergency is going to arise. And so part of our job as elder law and estate planning attorneys is to counsel our clients to be ready, right? To have a plan in place so that if and when an emergency does arise, we've got you covered. We've thought this through. We want to encourage conversations between seniors and family members and caregivers and support people and medical professionals so that everybody's on the same page. The more proactive you are with your loved ones, the easier, if there is an easy way to be in an emergency or in a crisis situation, you're gonna, you're gonna know, right? You're gonna have a plan in place. So one of the ways, I'll start out by talking about one of the ways you can have uh a contingency plan in place is through making sure, of course, you have a healthcare power of attorney in place uh and a general durable power of attorney. But specifically that healthcare power of attorney, you're gonna give your agent, somebody you know and trust, who knows your medical preferences, you're gonna give them the ability to act on your behalf if you're incapacitated or not able to make decisions on your own. If you're in a coma, uh you're having a stroke, you can't speak, some kind of emergency situation. We also recommend that you have those documents, copies of those documents on file with your preferred hospital, with your primary care physician, with any other doctors and medical professionals that you see on a regular basis, like your neurologist, your oncologist, whichever doctors are giving you uh ongoing treatment. We want them to know, and you should want them to know who your agent is. And you want that dialogue to be wide open so that everybody knows who the players are, who the caregivers are, and who you trust with your medical decisions. And I will pass over to Haley to talk about um keeping track of those documents, making sure you know where they are and how to use them.
Haley Matson:Yeah. So thanks, Jane. I know that the emergency planning is a big topic right now, um, especially with you know the winter storm coming. So it's important to discuss and really plan. And along with the healthcare power of attorney, you're also gonna have a general durable power of attorney. This is for your financial and legal matters. So you're gonna designate an agent to act on your behalf if you are incapacitated or incompetent in an accident, you know, whatever may have you. And this person will be able to talk to your attorney if you have one. They'll be able to manage your bank accounts, pay your mortgage, pay rent, kind of do everything that you would be able to do financially and legally when you no longer can. So this is really important for you to also have on file with your financial institutions. So anywhere that you have, like, you know, a bank account or even like a CD or a money market account, anywhere that you bank should have one of these, along with your attorney for whatever matter, if you have one. Another really important thing is that your agents, the people you list, should also have copies of these. So I always think it's really important to counsel my clients about you know keeping documents in a safe place and making sure that everybody who needs one has one. Things can get lost, especially in an emergency, if there's a big storm coming and you're running to a hotel, you don't want to have to go searching through four different filing cabinets for your documents. You want to have them all in one place. I know that we give you a binder to put everything in that's nice and big, very easy to see and read, but you just want them in one place that you and your spouse, maybe one or two of your kids and all your agents know where they are. You want to be able to grab those if you do have to grab them. And if someone has to use them, they're definitely gonna need a copy of them. So I think that's just really important. And you know, having all of those documents in place is really gonna help you out in the event that somebody's got to use them.
Jane Dearwester:So yeah, very true. And that's a stressful situation, you know, here in Western North Carolina, as we're bracing for the winter storm that's coming here in January. Uh, just not too long ago, just over a year ago, we all went through Hurricane Helene, and that was a masterclass in what to do in a crisis. And so many of us were not prepared. Nobody thought it was going to be as bad as it was. There were people without power for weeks. We didn't have potable water for months in this area. Nobody was prepared for the length of time that we were cut off. Um, our roads were cut off. Uh, we had no cell phone service or electricity or internet access. It was very, very unusual. And we're seeing a lot of people in our community right now being triggered by this idea of a winter storm. And these are things that are going to happen over time, but being prepared can help alleviate some of that stress and having uh connection and conversation with your family members, loved ones, and your legal agents is just so important. That's probably the best thing you could do, which doesn't cost you anything, right? Just call somebody on the phone. Make sure you have a contingency plan in place and uh be safe out there. And um thank you so much, everyone, for tuning in to this Elder Law report. We hope everybody stays safe and warm, weathers this storm. Maybe we only get a few uh drops of rain and it passes. And I hope that's the case. Uh yes, indeed. So, Haley, stay safe in Charlotte. We're gonna stay safe here in the mountains. And any further information on preparedness, please check out our website at mcelderlaw.com. And we invite anyone watching this video to come in for a free consultation in any one of our three offices. We're located in Hendersonville, Charlotte, and Shelby. Thanks again, Haley. Thank you, Jane.
Haley Matson:Bye.