Important Documents Everyone Should Have

Before you need the cremation services provided in Sun City, AZ, there are several important documents you should have to take care of life as it is ending and after it has ended. Of course, many people find dealing with their own mortality a bit morbid, but the reality is that what you are doing makes sure your wishes get executed and substantially eases the burden on your family.

Two documents that everyone needs are a living will and health care proxy. A living will defines what medical treatments you want if you were unable to make medical decisions on your own. You get to decide whether or not you want extraordinary measures to be taken if you’re dying. A healthcare proxy designates someone to make medical decisions for you if you’re unable to make them for yourself. If you do not have a healthcare proxy and a living will, medical professionals are bound by the Hippocratic oath to make every effort to save your life, which can include life support, resuscitation, intubation, and a feeding tube. The body can function this way for a long time, even if there is no brain activity.

Everyone should have a will or revocable trust. A revocable trust designates somebody to take over your affairs if you’re incapacitated or you die. A revocable trust can be changed at any time, whereas an irrevocable trust cannot. A will specifies how your possessions, your assets, and any other thing that you want to include are distributed after you die. A will does not make any provisions for someone stepping in to help out with your affairs while you are living.

A durable power of attorney is another document that everybody should have. What a durable power of attorney does is authorize someone that you trust to make legal and financial decisions for you if you are not able to. An example of why a durable power of attorney is so important is that if you go into surgery for a routine procedure, you will be temporarily unconscious. However, while you’re in surgery, you may have some legal or financial matter the needs to be addressed. A durable power of attorney can do this for you while you’re in surgery.

Everyone should have an estate plan, no matter how many and how much their assets are. What an estate plan does is structure your assets so that you are able to pass on as much as is possible to your beneficiaries, in the way that you want to do it.

Everybody should have residential insurance, no matter whether they rent or they own their dwelling. The coverage should be enough to adequately replace the contents. You should review your policies every year to make sure that everything that’s in your home will be covered if something happens. If you live in an area where flooding is likely, you should purchase flood insurance. For example, most of the damage done in coastal areas by hurricanes is flood damage and not wind damage. So even if you have insurance on your dwelling, but you don’t have flood insurance, only the damage that’s attributable to the wind will be covered. What got flooded out or swept away in floodwaters, without flood insurance, is your loss.

To learn more about cremains and cremation services in Sun City, AZ, our compassionate and experienced team at Simply Cremation & Funeral Arrangements can assist you. You can come to our funeral home at 16952 W. Bell Rd., #303, Surprise, AZ, 85374, or you can contact us today at (623) 975-9393.