New York State law permits you to appoint a person you trust to make health care decisions on your behalf if you become unable to make those decisions for yourself. That person is called your “Agent.” Typically, an agent is a trusted family member or close friend that is aware of your wishes and can be relied upon to follow those wishes should you need. This is not a simple task as often your wishes will have to be applied to changing medical circumstances that are often unforeseeable. Hospitals, doctors and other medical providers are obligated to abide by the directions of your agent for health care decisions and the Health Care Proxy can contain its own advanced directives and give the agent as much or as little authority as you so choose.
We at Vella, Carbone & Associates, LLP believe the Health Care Proxy is such an important and integral part of any estate plan that we prepare a Health Care Proxy to all of our estate planning clients free of charge when we are drafting Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorneys or other estate planning documents. In fact, you can find the New York State Department of Health information and form Health Care Proxy by CLICKING HERE. We encourage our clients to become conversant in this integral part of estate planning and are happy to provide any information our clients require. Please do not hesitate to contact us and Margie or Aaron would be happy to assist you with planning for your future and protecting your assets.