Another Reason People Fail to Plan – Part 2

In my previous blog post here I gave you another reason why people fail to plan for a potential crisis .  Sometimes personal background or culture plays a role.

We received a recent call from a daughter concerning her dad who had been traveling abroad when he had a stroke.  The family was able to fly him back to New Jersey to a long term care facility.  Dad has no power of attorney or health care directive giving anyone the ability to make medical or financial decisions on his behalf.

The family asked about obtaining guardianship over Dad.  When I asked more detailed questions about his cognitive awareness, however, they explained that he was able to communicate verbally.  It appeared to me that he had a level of capacity and understanding about his situation such that a guardianship application would unlikely to be successful.

I told him I thought this was a good thing since a guardianship application is more time consuming and  expensive than preparing a power of attorney and health care directive, which it appeared that Dad could execute.  I was puzzled, however, about their less than enthusiastic response until they told me that Dad has repeatedly refused to sign these documents because “it’s not how things are done where he comes from”.

This is not the first time I have encountered this kind of objection and I recognize it is a difficult one to get around.  The dilemma they face, however, is that Dad may need long term care which will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.  He owns investment properties which generate rental income but not enough to meet his needs.  Some properties will need to be sold while others could possibly be protected, however, none of that can be accomplished without either a power of attorney or a guardianship.  

Dad is stubborn in his resistance and so far they have not been able to break through.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have an easy solution.  All I could tell them was that it is essential to keep trying.