My Faith Has Nothing to do with my Estate Plan

Faith, whether it is a traditional religious belief or otherwise can be critical to address in your estate plan. Health care documents can affect, and even violate, your religious beliefs. End of life decisions as to medical care can be very faith dependent and your documents should address them. You should also specify your faith in the documents so people know. Don’t assume that just because your family “knows” you can ignore this. Medical providers and other third parties may make decisions consistent with your wishes if they are known. And even within the same faith, or amongst family members, there can be material differences in faith based views of end of life decision making such as administration of pain relief, end of life religious rituals Be very careful not to sign a “standard” form without reviewing it for consistency with your religious beliefs. You might find faith based forms on websites focused on this type of planning for your faith. If you will use other documents, from a general website or even lawyer, compare the faith based forms to those and consider adjusting the general forms to respect your religious wishes.