It’s the luck of the draw, and what did you do to plan and what card are you going to get? So if you plan well, there are four documents that you need in planning.

I’ve got another acronym for you. I’m going to call it WAPT. So we have a Will, we have Advanced Healthcare Directive, we have a Power of Attorney, and we have a Trust. So let me go through all four of those documents with you and describe a little bit about what they do for you. Well, with the will, the will allows you to decide what property of yours that you want to leave to somebody else and to name that very specific person. It could be money, it could be little jewelry, it can be your gardening items, it can be whatever you want. It could be a car, your house, whatever it is. But if you don’t name those people, it will probably go somewhere else somehow, maybe to the state, depending on if you have family, if you’re married, or you’re not.

So from there, we look at your advanced healthcare directive. What is an advanced healthcare directive? I could go on forever about the importance of this. And if you’re 18 or older, you need to have one of these. We go to court on these issues. You can’t get services in hospitals and in facilities, so I want to make sure that you have an advanced healthcare directive. What it is, is you decide what kinds of things you want for your health. You share those ideas with others and you name those people to be on that document. And please make sure that you give them a copy of that document so if something happens to you they can present that document at the hospital or in a skilled nursing facility, wherever they need to make it a decision for your health.

Think about their age. Think about your age. If they’re as old as or older than you are, you might want to have a second person that’s a little bit younger. But make sure that they’ll follow through with your wishes, not with what they want for you. So you might want to have a discussion with these people and say, “This is what I want. Do you think you can follow through on this?” These things can be really tough at the end if you do not want to be resuscitated. That is called a DNR and the Do Not Resuscitate is part of the advanced healthcare directive.

Now let’s go into the power of attorney. That’s about your money. You’re giving somebody the golden ticket to your bank account when you give them a power of attorney, so pick wisely. Some people choose that person just because it’s their oldest son. Some people choose that person just because they think they’re good with money. But you need to make sure that they’re going to follow through on the things that are important to you. Do you want to live in a very lavish lifestyle and have the money to do that or do you live more frugally and you want to be able to have a budget that you present to that person and say, “Please do these things for me.”?

So make sure that you have the right person in place for that. Also think about age. We want to make sure that if somebody else is making the decisions that for us that they’re going to be around for us! So make sure that we have the right people in place to make those decisions. When we live in a state of California or living here in the state of California, our property is worth a considerable amount of money. So if you own property, more than likely you will want to add a trust to these basic four documents or have within these documents. And what that does is that it helps you to allow or to avoid probate court if you pass away and you have your name in your property, your real property, that’s the house, in this document, within the trust. So please make sure that you have those four things. It is a luck of a draw here. You do not want to get stuck with just any old number, trust me. You want to make sure that people who care about you or will make good decisions on your behalf are there for you.

So please, I can’t tell you enough. If you’re 18 or older, get those things together. WAPT! WAPT! WAPT – your will, your advanced healthcare directive, your power of attorney, and your trust. Back to you, guys.