BETA - What are the most important documents I should consider when it comes to finance?

What are the most important legal documents I should consider when it comes to finances? That is a question I get all the time. Before I get into it, I do want to make a disclaimer here. Anytime I talk to an audience, I need to make it plain that I don't represent anyone listening. What I'm doing here is just for informational purposes only. I am only licensed in the state of Ohio. When you hear me talk about things here, take those concepts or questions back to an attorney in your state and probably one that does estate planning and possibly probate and let those people answer any questions that you might have. I just wanted to make that clear because the laws are different in every state. A lot of what we will talk about is state law. The Ohio Revised Code is the only code that I know. My answers will be based on Ohio. I ask clients sometimes, do you have all of your documents in order? Sometimes they say yes and I say what do you have and they start the list. Sometimes clients will call me and say, people keep asking me are my affairs or are my documents in order? What does that even mean? I'm going to just name the five or six documents that it does not matter where you live. These are documents that you should have. The first one is the last will and testament. That is the document that disposes of your assets. I say to people, get your last will and testament done because you have a voice. While you're here, you can say who gets what and how you want things to go. That's the first document. The second one that I have in my packet of documents is called a general, durable power of attorney. General because it covers a lot. Durable because it will last even if you're disabled or incapacitated. So a general, durable power of attorney. Some people call it a business or a financial POA. But the purpose of that is to, if you become unable to handle your affairs while you're you have named an agent to act on your behalf, in your place, to take care of any business. It could be bank accounts. It could be taxes, getting your license renewed. Any of those things that you take care of, it could even be refinancing your home. This person stands in your place and then you name them and they will take care of your affairs. The third document is a healthcare power of attorney. When I explain it to clients, that is the document that if you go in the hospital and you are unable to give consent for surgery, for blood transfusions, whatever it is, this other person can give consent for you. So that is a healthcare power of attorney. Also a living will. So sometimes you might hear the term advanced directives. That's your healthcare power of attorney and your living will. So both of those documents have to do with you in the hospital, sick. The living will though only applies in certain situations. You are terminally ill or permanently unconscious. And then that's when that document comes into play. You name an agent once again to allow the doctor to give, to administer, or to withhold or withdraw nutrition or hydration. So nutrition is a feeding tube. Nutrition is IV. So those are the key documents. Now one other document I add in, you know, the documents you should have is a final burial instruction sheet. It's real simple. It has a box that says I want to be cremated or I want to be buried. It has a place to write in. I want to go to this cemetery or I want a mausoleum or I want to go to this funeral home. And again, you name a representative is who it is. And that would be the person that would take care of all of those kinds of things. My last document I put in the packet is a standalone HIPAA waiver. Say for instance you're in a car wreck and the person that you've named as your health care agent, well they might not have your full document there, but there can be one sheet of paper that they could have that they could get to the hospital and the doctors or the medical staff would tell them something about your condition. So that's what when people say to me or I say to them, are your documents in order, those are the documents that I'm talking about.