• A power of attorney to transfer financial decision-making if
the principal becomes mentally incapacitated.
• A health care power of attorney, complete with medical
instructions to follow if the principal becomes physically incapacitated.
• A Health Information Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) authorization, giving the bearer rights to access medical records.
• A health care proxy that covers situations the health care
power of attorney does not, and gives the bearer rights to make decisions.
• A gifting power of attorney that empowers a proxy to make
gifts to your fiduciary.
Berg recently drafted a longevity trust for an 82-year-old
woman experiencing the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. Together, Berg’s client
and her three children selected one of the siblings as the family fiduciary
advisor. Berg also recommends that her clients clearly specify and enunciate
where they want to live if they have Alzheimer’s, and make as many decisions as
possible, while still in command of their faculties. "People tend to spend a lot
of time working on their wills, but all of these documents that have to do with
money are skimpy," Berg says. "They don’t take into account: ‘What do I want my
life to be like?’ "
These questions have a particular urgency for Harriet Reininger
and her husband, Arthur, who together owned Edwards Luggage, a high-end retail
operation in the San Francisco area. She is 78 and Arthur is 91; her father
lived to be 101. The Reiningers cared for him in their home for 12 years, and
eventually hired assistants when he needed them. But that situation became
untenable when he began to believe that his caretakers were spying on him. This
forced Harriet to locate an assisted living facility better equipped to care for
him—but her father could not participate as fully in the decision-making
process.
Last year, as Harriet and Arthur pondered their ages, they
realized that maintaining their home in Palo Alto, Calif., was becoming
increasingly difficult. The gardening was becoming more of a chore than a joy
for Arthur, a World War II veteran decorated with four Bronze Stars for service
in the Pacific. Although they are both still active and healthy, they decided to
sell their house and move into a luxury retirement center nearby. The Reiningers
wanted to choose where they would live, and did not want to burden their three
children with that decision or their care should they require it in the future.
"In a sense, it was an insurance policy that there would be a facility if we
needed it," she says. "It wasn’t that we needed to move into a retirement
center, but when you get to a certain age, you really have to start thinking
about it."
Illustration by Jonathan Barkat.
Elizabeth Harris is a staff writer for Worth.
Additional Information
 Measuring the Mortal Coil
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