Saturday, October 22, 2011

Would You Want Your Enemy As Your Guardian?

By Susan M. Graham, Certified Elder Law Attorney, Senior Edge Legal, Boise, Idaho 

This happened for the heiress of L'Oreal, a French cosmetics company.  Liliane Bettencourt is 89.  She and her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, have been suing one another for years.  A French Court found the mother to have failing mental health and to be showing signs of dementia.  The Court then appointed the daughter as her mother's guardian.  Now, the daughter can control when her mother can travel and how her money will be managed.¹

Could this happen to you?

A simple way to avoid this is to sign a financial power of attorney and health power of attorney stating who you want to make financial and health decisions for you if you are not able to care for yourself.  That will be a great first step.

If you have not signed these documents, go to our website (www.graham-lawoffice.com) and download the forms for free.  The forms come with instructions to make them easy to fill out.

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¹Heiress Loses L'Oreal Family Fight, The Wall Street Journal, page B8, October 18, 2011.