DUI FAQ
- What Happens if You Die Without A Will?
- What is a Revocable Living Trust?
- What is a Health Care Proxy?
- Why Have Health Directives?
- Who needs estate planning?
- What Happens if You Die Without A Will in Utah?
In Utah, if you die without a will, your property
will be distributed according to state "intestacy" laws. Utah's intestacy
law gives your property to your closest relatives, beginning with your spouse
and children. If you have neither a spouse nor children, your grandchildren or
your parents will get your property. This list continues with increasingly distant
relatives, including siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and your
spouse's relatives. If the court exhausts this list to find that you have no living
relatives by blood or marriage, the state will take your property.
- What is a Revocable Living Trust?
The term "living trust" is generally used to describe a trust
(a) which you can create during your lifetime, and (b) which you can revoke or amend
whenever you wish to do so. You can also create an "irrevocable" living trust, but
that is permanent and unchangeable and is almost exclusively done to produce certain
tax results beyond the scope of this summary.
- What is a Health Care Proxy?
A "health care proxy," sometimes called a "health care surrogate"
or "durable medical power of attorney," is the appointment of a person to whom you grant
authority to make medical decisions in the event you are unable to express your preferences.
Most commonly, this situation occurs either because you are unconscious or because your mental
state is such that you do not have the legal capacity to make your own decisions.
- Why Have Health Directives?
The purpose of Health Directives is to allow you to express your preferences
concerning medical treatment at the end of your life. By expressing such preferences in a written legal
document, you are ensuring that your preferences are made known. Physicians prefer these documents because
they provide a written expression from you as to your medical care and designate for the physician the
person he or she should consult concerning unanswered medical questions. Rather than the physician having
to obtain a consensus answer from your family as to your treatment, the physician knows your preferences
and knows who you want to provide decisions when you cannot do so.
- Who needs estate planning?
You do-whether your estate is large or small. Either way, you should designate
someone to manage your assets and make health care and personal care decisions for you if you ever
become unable to do so for yourself.
