Estate Planning: Couple with Adult Children

DuPage County Estate Planning Attorneys

A few months ago, Attorney Jae Kwon in our office was working on an estate plan for a husband and wife with adult children. Jae and Audrey Anderson both knew the husband in this family, as he was a law enforcement officer whom they dealt with in several cases when they were both at the State’s Attorney’s office. Obviously, it is rewarding when people we have known over the years choose to trust us with such important and personal matters.

The estate plan was all fairly straightforward, but there is often one thing that can be very emotional for someone who is approaching “senior citizenship”, that is the healthcare power of attorney.

The day came to sign the documents and the couple came to our office with their adult children so that the whole family could be informed of the documents. We really appreciate when clients do that. It can be taxing to think about one’s own mortality, or the mortality of your parents, but it is certainly a wise thing to do. As we explained the documents it became apparent that the wife was second guessing how the healthcare power of attorney was going to affect her daughter if the time came to use it. Jae was the attorney handling this matter and Audrey was only there to witness the signatures in this case, but the wife turned towards Audrey and asked “are you a mother?” They had a brief discussion about her concerns of having their son or their daughter potentially have to make a difficult decision at some point. We offered to change the documents on the spot, but after a few minutes she relaxed and was reassured that she had made the correct decision for their family.

That is the softer side of law that makes owning a law practice worthwhile. The family thanked us, not just because Jae did a great job with preparing documents, but because we are able to put a human, understanding touch on the serious matters of life.