Summer Travel? Check These Estate Plan Details
Summer travel has a way of reminding us how much life depends on practical details: flights, hotel reservations, pet care, child care, house instructions, and emergency contacts. Before you leave, it may be helpful to prepare. If something unexpected happened, would the people you trust have a clear way to help?
Below is a simple summer prep checklist to help you think through and organize a few details that are often overlooked.
☐ Confirm who could help with legal, financial, or medical decisions
If you became unable to act, who has legal authority to help with important decisions?
Depending on your plan, you may want to reference a power of attorney, advance health care directive, HIPAA authorization, trust document, or other estate planning document. You do not need to review your whole estate plan before every trip, but it may be useful to remind yourself who is named, confirm they are available this season, and make sure they are aware of their role.
☐ Update emergency contacts, especially if your chosen decision-maker is traveling too
Emergency contact lists can become outdated without anyone noticing. A person may have moved, changed phone numbers, become less available, or be traveling with you.
Before a trip, consider the emergency contacts listed with schools, camps, doctors, senior care providers, house sitters, pet sitters, and other important people or institutions. It may be especially helpful to identify both a primary contact and a backup, especially if your spouse, partner, sibling, or adult child is traveling with you.
☐ Leave short instructions for temporary care
The details that keep a household running likely do not belong in legal documents, but they can support the people who may need to step in.
If you have minor children, aging parents, pets, a home, employees, tenants, or loved ones who depend on you, consider what would happen if you were temporarily unavailable. Helpful instructions might include who can pick up a child from school or camp, how to reach a care provider, where to find medication or allergy information, who can care for a pet, how to contact a landlord or tenant, or how to handle an urgent household issue.
☐ Organize health care information and place it somewhere discoverable
Medical information can be difficult to gather quickly if the right person does not know where to look.
Consider whether a trusted person could find basic health care information if needed, such as doctor and pharmacy contacts, medication lists, allergy information, health insurance details, and the names of anyone authorized to help with medical decisions. If you have an advance health care directive or HIPAA authorization, it may also be helpful to confirm that the right person knows where those documents are stored.
☐ Make sure one trusted person knows where to begin
It can be helpful to identify the first steps someone would need to take and make sure at least one trusted person, and ideally one backup, knows where important information is stored and who to contact next.
Those first steps might include locating original estate planning documents, contacting your attorney or advisors, finding health insurance information, or reaching the people named in your documents. The goal is to make the first few steps easier for the people you trust.
☐ Send a quick message before you leave
Once you have identified your key contacts and gathered the most important information, send a quick note to your trusted people. This does not need to be formal or heavy. A short email or text before a trip can prevent confusion later.
Your trusted people care about your wellbeing and are willing to step in if needed. Taking small steps to help them know where to start is a meaningful way of showing care and appreciation for them, too.
Summer travel is a great time to reconnect and rest. A bit of prep before you leave can help you and your loved ones enjoy it all.
This blog post is general educational information and is not a substitute for legal advice. If this checklist raises questions about who could legally step in or whether your documents still reflect your wishes, you are welcome to contact Shafae Law to learn more about our Estate Planning and Diagnostic services. Existing clients are always welcome to reach out with questions. For more practical estate planning reminders, subscribe to our newsletter.