Creating a plan for the care and welfare of your life and that of your family as you grow older can be called a life care plan. This plan is not a legal document, although it embodies legal concepts.

Although the purpose for creating such a plan may be to enable Americans to commence the thinking process with respect to getting older, it can be argued that this kind of planning could also help to prevent major legal problems if you suffered an unexpected catastrophic injury or illness, such as a car accident, or a stroke, or a medical diagnosis of cancer. Everyone has heard stories of young career men and women, without any warning whatsoever, diagnosed with cancer. Naturally, many of them had never given anything more than a passing thought to such an event, and, of course, no planning or preventative measures had been taken.

Thus, whether you are thirty or eighty, there are steps you can take to help your family avoid hassles and preserve your assets. There are a number of methods by which to plan in advance for the possibility that certain medical conditions may happen to you or a member of your family. Legal documents such as Living Wills and Durable Powers of Attorney for Healthcare can help you immensely.

A Life Care Plan is nothing more than considering these legal mechanisms already discussed, along with other things which as you get older you may wish to consider. Considering these things now may help to answer certain questions, such as who do I trust with my bank account information? Or who will take care of my children if something happens to my spouse and me? Or should a particular person know my medical history?

These types of questions arouse much thought, but too often, not enough preventative activity. There is no special format to a life care plan, and the one we will discuss may not be as complete as others.