Mental Disorders and Estate Planning: More complex than you think
Mental or personality disorders can obviously be very difficult to live with: it can make consistent employment difficult, financial independence a struggle, and the social and emotional impact lifelong. People with mental disorders can be impulsive with money, difficulty managing a budget, and trouble maintaining whatever money you do come across. This can all further impact estate planning. Estate planning typically involves creating a number of legal documents, such as a Last Will and Testament, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives, but Estate planning is also the process of organizing and managing your assets during your lifetime and determining how they will be distributed after your death. It involves making decisions about things like who will inherit your assets, who will manage your affairs if you become incapacitated, and how your assets will be used to provide for your loved ones. These documents allow you to specify your wishes and appoint individuals to carry out your instructions.
Can personality disorders affect how you can plan for your estate? Obviously if you’re suffering from any type of major mental disorder it can affect your mental stability, your finances, and your entire life. That is why a new approach to estate planning may be different for individuals with these types of individuals: a consistent failure to modify one’s behaviour is a chronic problem when it comes to estate planning. When it comes to estate planning: due diligence, proper organization and financial management are all necessary. Estate Planners who have clients with disorders may find themselves frustrated if their clients are not taking their advice. It may not be the most fun topic to discuss, but this rarely discussed topic is an important and sensitive one: how do estate-planners deal with clients who have mental or intellectual disorders? Here’s a concise article on how estate-planners can handle this: Estate-planning and disorders.
