By October, most of us are pretty good at hurricane preparation. Water? Check. Flashlights? Check. Batteries? Check. Medications? Check. Enough snacks to last through three weather updates and a power outage? Absolutely. But hurricane season is not over yet, and there is one part of emergency preparation most people never think about:
If you had to leave your home tonight, could your family find your important legal and financial documents tomorrow?
A hurricane, fire, evacuation, power outage, or medical emergency can suddenly make paperwork that has been sitting untouched for years very important. Your power of attorney may be needed to access an account. Your healthcare surrogate designation may be needed at the hospital. Your insurance policy may be needed to file a claim. And none of those documents are very helpful if they are sitting in a water-damaged filing cabinet—or locked in a safe no one else knows how to open.
Start With the Basics
Your will, trust, powers of attorney, healthcare documents, insurance policies, deeds, identification, and financial records should be stored somewhere protected from fire, water, and theft, or, as many of our clients know, in a bright blue bag that is easy to grab and go. It is also smart to keep secure digital copies of important records. But storage is only half the job. Someone you trust should know where everything is and how to access it. A perfectly organized estate plan is not much help if no one can find it.
What If Mom or Dad Is in a Nursing Home?Here is another question families often overlook that I wrote about years ago.
https://jakoblegal.com/florida-nursing-home-tragedy-causes-rethinking-of-disaster-preparedness/
What happens if your parent’s assisted living facility or nursing home has to evacuate?
During a fast-moving emergency, your first concern may be simply finding out where your parent was taken. But almost immediately, other questions can follow.
https://jakoblegal.com/what-happens-when-a-nursing-home-closes/
• Who can approve a transfer?
• Who can speak with doctors?
• Who can sign a new facility agreement?
• Who can access money if temporary care has to be paid for quickly?
Being the adult child does not automatically give you legal authority to handle those decisions. Your parent should have current healthcare and financial powers of attorney in place, and the facility should have the correct documents and emergency contact information on file. It is also worth asking where residents would be taken during an evacuation and how families would be notified if phones or power are down.
Make Sure Your Plan Still Works
Emergencies also expose outdated estate plans. Ask yourself:
• Who can make medical decisions for me?
• Who can handle my finances if I cannot?
• Who is my backup?
• And do those people know they have been chosen?
If you have to stop and think about the answers, it may be time to review your plan.
Add One More Thing to the Hurricane Checklist
We cannot control whether a hurricane, fire, or medical emergency happens. We can control whether our family is left scrambling when it does. So before hurricane season ends, add one more item to your checklist:
• Make sure your estate plan is current, your important documents are protected, and someone you trust knows where to find them.
• Because sometimes the most important part of your emergency
Plan is not something you can buy at the grocery store.
