Benjamin Young

The reason I practice estate planning is a simple one, my grandparents. My grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease later in his life. His entire life, he had provided for my grandmother financially. His pension from John Deere was what helped them get by day to day. After my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, all of a sudden issues arose. My grandmother would try to call the benefits department and they would not allow her to make any changes because she had no paperwork proving she could make such decisions.

This devastated my grandmother. She came to me with tears in her eyes asking, “What do I do now?” The reason I do what I do is so that no one ever has to go through a similar situation to my grandparents. In their situation we got lucky. My grandfather would have good days and bad days. On the bad days he wouldn’t even recognize his own wife, my grandmother. On his good days, however, he seemed as if nothing was ever wrong in the first place. On a good day we were able to help him sign a Durable Power of Attorney for Property allowing my grandmother to make decisions for him.

Many people believe they can keep putting off their plan until tomorrow, but there isn’t always a tomorrow to get things done. I do what I do to make sure our clients don’t have to wait for a good day and hope they get lucky enough to take care of a problem.