Document Your Wishes Before Tragedy Strikes

The national right-to-die debate triggered by the Terri Schiavo case has led many Americans to ponder what they would want their families to do in a similar situation.

Schiavo died last month, 15 years after slipping into what doctors called a persistent vegetative state. Michael Schiavo insisted that his wife would never have wanted to be kept alive by artificial means, but her parents and siblings disagreed. Experts say the long-running legal battle over her fate could have been avoided if Schiavo had documented her wishes.

“So much of the fighting in that case, and the other big cases that we have had, was about what Terri would want if she could talk to us,” said Ed Long, executive director of the nonprofit Healthcare and Elder Law Programs in Torrance. “If they had discussed this in advance and, ideally, documented it somewhere, they would never have had these problems.”

Long advises people to act now, while the Schiavo case is fresh in their minds, to create documents that will help their relatives handle both their possible death and incapacity.

“You can say, ‘Use your judgment,’ but you are putting someone in a terrible position without giving them more,” Long said. “It used to be that people would say, ‘Never put me on machines.’ But, if you were out tooling around in your [car] and you collapse a lung, you need a respirator to get you going again so that, in two weeks, you’ll be better. You want that machine. What you need to discuss and set on paper is what makes life worth living.”

There are two documents that everyone needs -- a healthcare directive, also called a living will or healthcare power of attorney, and a last will and testament.

The healthcare directive tells others what means should be used to keep you alive, and when doctors and family members should abandon efforts. The will and testament deals with the disposition of assets at your death.

Forms for both are available free or for a nominal cost.

Some good websites that offer free healthcare directives include the American Bar Assn. site at www.abanet.org. Search for “health care advance planning” and you will find end-of-life forms. A nonprofit group called Compassion in Dying also offers advance directives. Fill out the form at www.compassionindying.org and it will e-mail you a copy, or call (800) 247-7421.

Long’s group also offers free healthcare directives at its site, www.betterendings.org, as well as a booklet called “Your Way,” aimed at getting families to begin a discussion on end-of-life wishes.

Healthcare directives can be used to appoint a trusted friend or relative to serve as your medical advocate in the event that you can no longer make decisions yourself.

Most adults also should execute a will to dispose of their property. Parents of minor children also will want to prepare a will so they can designate guardians for their kids.

Most courts recognize even the simplest declarations of the decedent’s intent, said Bill Abrams, a partner with law firm Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson in Los Angeles. California law recognizes so-called holographic wills, or handwritten wills, that need only your wishes and your signature to be valid.

“You can take a cocktail napkin at a bar, write down what you want to happen to your assets and sign it, and you are set,” Abrams said.

Still, a form is preferable because it includes various options you may not think to include on the napkin, such as appointing an executor, and how to distribute your assets if your spouse should die at the same time as you.

Free forms are available online, including at Internet Legal Research Group at www.ilrg.com. They can also be purchased for a few dollars at stationery stores. The simplest forms only distribute assets. But parents of minor children would want forms that allow them to name guardians and, potentially, set up trusts for the minor child’s inherited assets.

Keep in mind that although a handwritten will needs only the signature of the person creating it, will forms must be signed by two witnesses. Those witnesses should not be people who stand to gain from the will’s bequests, Abrams said.

Those with more complicated needs may want to buy a will-writing software program, which generally costs $20 to $50. Such programs help you create a form you can print out (which, of course, will require two witness signatures).

Some websites that offer will programs include www.freebusi nessforms.com, www.nolo.com, www.wills.com and uslegalforms.com. At what point should individuals consult an attorney to write a will, rather than simply use a program? That’s a judgment call, Abrams said. Traditional families with modest assets and simple desires are probably well-served by software, whereas those with blended families, significant assets or complicated wishes might want to hire an attorney.

People who are unsure whether they’ve managed to execute a legal document also would be wise to at least hire an attorney to review their will, he noted.

Still, the most important thing is to get your wishes in writing.

“People don’t want to deal with this, so they often put it off until it’s too late,” Abrams said. “I tell clients I would rather that they had written something on a cocktail napkin than nothing at all. I want you to do something from your heart.”

Schiavo, stricken in her 20s, graphically illustrated that you’re never too young to plan for a personal disaster.

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Kathy M. Kristof, author of “Investing 101” and “Taming the Tuition Tiger,” welcomes your comments and suggestions but regrets that she cannot respond individually to letters or phone calls. Write to Personal Finance, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or e-mail kathy.kristof @latimes.com. For previous columns, visit latimes.com/kristof.