What David Bowie Taught Us About Personal Care Plans

I was in 5^th grade when I got my first ghetto blaster. It was pink and came from Santa wrapped up with a David Bowie cassette tape. I played “Dancing in the Street” on that ghetto blaster, danced around my room and stared at my David Bowie poster what seemed like a million times. He was an icon. His music masterfully took over MTV during the time period when MTV played music videos. He was able to paint the exact picture he desired his audiences to see. A talent he held even in death. David Bowie fought cancer for 18 months privately and died in his home, peacefully, surrounded by family. With the help of his wife, Iman, and children David died exactly as he lived … on his own terms.

As soon as I read of the way that he passed, I instantly knew that David had a personal care plan. He decided exactly who he wanted around him at death. It has been reported that when he got too sick to go to his favorite pub for his favorite sandwiches, assistants would go pick them up for him. When facing a chronic disease, there is so little we can control, but isn’t it nice to know that we can plan to be as comfortable as possible, surrounded by the things and people we love and sheltered from those we do not want around.  

Personal care plans are an amazing, yet largely overlooked, estate planning tool. While having our finances in order is critical, knowing we will pass with the comforts and dignity we deserve can offer more assurance than any other portion of a well-made plan. Early in my career, I largely disregarded the personal care plan as an ancillary document not necessary. But, as I watched client after client pass in various ways under various circumstances, I saw over and over not only the comfort it brought to the ill party, but the guidance and assurance it brought to family members that they were honoring their loved one as he would have wanted.  

A well written personal care plan allows a client the ability to guide who visits during end stages of life. It guides the determination of when and in what condition the person wishes to be taken out in public. It allows a person to select what food, drinks, television shows, books and entertainment he wants available when he can no longer articulate such things. It lists religious preferences and whether or not one wishes to attend church services.

Personal care plans also offer the ability to appoint one’s own disability panel. This disability panel is a group of individuals in someone’s life who will decide when a person is incompetent for purposes of any trust in which his estate is held. What a power! Now this person has kept his life from going on display as a Judge who knows little about him determines his competence. Instead the decision is made by a hand selected group of loved, trusted people in a private manner.

On his 50^th birthday, David Bowie stood in Madison Square Garden and said, “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” And, it wasn’t. He left us on top of the charts and under his own terms. As LWP attorneys, how great is it that we make sure our clients pass with the same dignity?  And we have everything we need to do it right at our fingertips within the drafting software…

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Kimberly Brannon, Legal-Technical & Software, Lawyers With Purpose