CONVERSATIONS BEFORE THE CRISIS:
End-of-life Planning, Estate Planning, Funeral and Burial Preparations aren’t things most people like to think about; as a matter of fact a lot of people put it off until it’s too late. (Read some of the stories below and see if any of them sound familiar to you.)
We invite you to join us on Wednesday November 29th at 7pm to learn more about what you can do to better prepare yourself and your family for your last moments and beyond. Topics to be discussed: Advanced Health Care Directive, End-Of-Life Housing, Estate Planning, Minor Child Custody Directives, Elder Law, Funeral and Burial Planning, as well as Q & A.
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Attorneys Nick and Tim Barna along with Funeral Director Edward Howell bring years of personal experience and expertise to the topics that most people avoid dealing with. There will be no sales pitches, no pressure to sign or buy anything. Simply put, we as a church have had so many families express how unprepared their loved ones were when the time came that we thought we should help bring awareness to this needed decision making process.
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You may think your too young to worry about this or that you have plenty of time to figure it out, the truth is it's never too early to prepare well. If your a young family this is even more important for you than you realize. Learn how to prepare your family for an unexpected crisis, sickness, accident or death.
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Read these stories below to get a better idea of what can happen when you are unprepared.
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My parents didn’t have a will, what a mess.
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When my mom passed away we all had to chip in to pay for her funeral and burial because she had no funeral plans or will. All her banks accounts were in her name only so we could not use her money to pay for the funeral or to pay her bills, we loved our mom but she didn’t make it easy for us.
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Everything went into probate, try grieving for your dad while being frustrated that he left everything for us to figure out and deal with.
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My parents always assumed that my sister and brother-in-law would take care of them when they got older, well they're older and things are a mess. My parents need more care than we can provide and they are stuck in-between having too many assets to get help and not enough assets to cover the cost of care.
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My siblings started arguing after my mom died because my parents didn’t handle things properly, instead of dealing with it while they were alive they kept putting it off.
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My dad went to the hospital and did not have a power of attorney or medical proxy in place.
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My brother and sister-in-law died in a car accident and the state had to get involved because they never made a will indicating who should care for my nieces and nephews. It was hard enough losing them but watching the kids go through this was sad.
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I honestly don’t think my dad wanted to be cremated but in a sense he left us no choice, he never planned for his funeral or burial and we just could not afford anything but a cremation.
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Me and my siblings always got along, when my dad died without a will it honestly put a lot of stress on our relationship with each other, my brother and sister have not spoken to each other in almost a year because of it.
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I think my parents were afraid of putting stuff on paper because they didn’t want to hurt us kids, I kind of resent that they did this to us.
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My sister has had addiction issues for years, after everything was settled (which took years) my sister got a lump sum of money that she blew through in no time at all, now she is worse off than she was before and needs help. My parents left no will or a plan to care for her. The sad thing is we told them for years that they needed to do something and they kept putting it off, now we are stuck with trying to figure out what to do, we feel guilty but we don't want to use our inheritances to take care of her.
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When my parents died neither one of them prepared for their death. The family homestead went from a place of memories to a place of conflict. My brother’s son and wife thought that they should be given first dibs on the place at a way below market value price; their logic was that it was staying in the family. Our logic was let’s get the most we can for it and split it equally between us all. I’m glad my parents are gone because they would be sick if they saw what their lack of planning did to our family.
When my mom got sick and had to go to the nursing home our family went through a tough time because we all had ideas of what home/state she should be in and how it should be paid for. What’s worse is we all thought we know what’s best for my mom and we all had different opinions, it was a nightmare and still is.
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JOIN US NOVEMBER 29th @ 7pm at the Waymart Church
If you have any questions or need assistance please contact us at: waymartchurch@ gmail.com