Transcript:
Ron Stark: We are joined as we are each week by our good friend, Larry Brock, from the Law Offices of Larry Brock based in Chino, California and Larry is an estate planner extraordinaire but i wanted to ask you, is estate planning like only for me as i think about my heirs or do I need to be thinking about it in terms of my children as well?
Larry Brock: Think about it in terms of your children as well. Estate planning is something for everyone, no matter what their age is. There are issues that need to be addressed and I’m offering a new product.
Ron Stark: Oh really. What is that?
Larry Brock: it’s for… think about it this way. You have a child, it’s graduation time from high school. What do parents do when the kid graduates?
Ron Stark: Celebrate? No that’s not until they leave college.
Larry Brock: Celebrate! We got them out of high school. And then the kid goes off to college and think about the kid that goes to… he went to Chicago. I had a client tell me this story… I had a good friend whose son went to Chicago to school.
Ron Stark: Out of state?
Larry Brock: Out-of-state College. And you know, as parents do, they call their children and ask how are you doing?. They want to know what’s happening… are you well? You know they called and he didn’t answer. They called again – he didn’t answer. They called the next day and he didn’t answer and they called…
Ron Stark: And now they’re starting to worry. They’re getting panicked.
Larry Brock: Parents worry? Yeah, parents worry, so they’re getting panicked and finally after a number of days, they found out where their son was. He’s in the hospital. Now, nobody would tell them what his condition was. The school wouldn’t tell them, the hospital wouldn’t tell them. Nobody would say anything and so they got on a plane, went to Chicago, spent some time with him, figured out what it was and they started getting good medical, additional medical help. Not that the medical help wasn’t good, but helped him and then they got him and brought him home. So what is it… his problem; what happened that nobody would tell them?
Ron Stark: Because he was 18, they couldn’t release the information.
Larry Brock: Right! He’s 18, he’s an adult. An adult, it’s all confidential. Your medical records are confidential. They won’t give it to the parents, they won’t give it to the brothers and sisters… nobody. And that’s both the school and the hospitals. So what we’re doing to help families and parents in that situation, is creating for them an advanced health care directive.
Ron Stark: Nice.
Larry Brock: Now most people think of the advanced health care directive because I’m getting old and I’m going to die.
Ron Stark: And here’s what I want you to do and what I don’t want you to do to keep me alive.
Larry Brock: That’s right. But the advanced health care directive also has a companion document that authorizes the release of confidential medical information. So this young man in Chicago, in the hospital, he goes into the hospital and he gives the hospital a card… if I can find mine… it’s just a little card like my credit card here and it says access to my medical directives.
Ron Stark: Oh nice.
Larry Brock: And now they can call and they get a copy of the documents and they know they can tell the parents.
Ron Stark: Or even contact the parents to say hey, this is going on.
Larry Brock: That’s right. And so what we put together, is a kit where we will give you the advanced health care directive and the confidential release of medical records and also enroll you so you can get the card and your son or daughter, when they go away to school, has this already prepared. We don’t know when the disaster strikes. And I’ve got three or four cases. I’m a small office in Chino but I have three or four cases where they’re young and disaster struck and there’s no advanced health care. And they’re stuck.
Ron Stark: So if someone wants more information on this product, or any of your estate planning services, how do they get a hold of you?
Larry Brock: Call the office. 909-590-9545. Brock Law Offices. We’re in Chino. You can go to my web page, www.trustandprobatelawyer.com, and we’ll be happy to help you. Consultation is free.
Ron Stark: All right. Thank you, Larry, so much.
Larry Brock: You’re welcome.
Ron Stark: We will be right back.