Why You Need Advance Directives | Santa Barbara Estate Planning and Elder Law
Advance directives give a person of your choosing the authority to make decisions on your behalf about the type of care you want in the event of incapacity or an end of life situation. Your directives may contain instructions about the types of medical treatments you would or would not want to be taken to keep you alive if you are in a coma or vegetative state.
In effect, advance directives allow you to decide, while you are alive and well, the type of care you want and the person you want to make the decisions for you. They allow you to better ensure that your wishes will be followed, and spare your loved ones from making such important decisions on your behalf without knowing what you would have wanted.
Nobody wants to think about advance directives, but the consequences of not creating them far outweigh the difficulty of creating them in advance. We invite you to contact us at (805)946-1550 for experienced counsel about the directives available and the ideal person or persons to serve as your agent.
Author Bio
Julianna Malis is the Founder and Managing Partner of Santa Barbara Estate Planning & Elder Law, a Santa Barbara estate planning law firm she founded in 2014. With more than 25 years of experience practicing law, she has dedicated her career to representing clients in a wide range of legal matters, including estate planning, elder law, Medicaid and Medicare planning, probate, and other estate planning areas.
Julianna received her Juris Doctor from the University of the Pacific — McGeorge School of Law and is a member of the California State Bar Association.