Episode 264

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Published on:

26th Jul 2023

Understanding the Five Wishes: A Comprehensive Guide to End-of-Life Planning

Hello, Wine and Dime listeners! Thank you once again for joining the show. Today, we are diving into a topic that is often overlooked but incredibly important in estate planning: The Five Wishes. This document, created by the organization Five Wishes, is the first living will that addresses not only your medical wishes but also your personal, emotional, and spiritual needs. It allows you to choose the person who will make healthcare decisions for you if you are unable to do so yourself.

Key Takeaways:

  1. The Five Wishes is a comprehensive living will that addresses personal, emotional, and spiritual needs, in addition to medical wishes.
  2. The document allows individuals to choose a healthcare decision-maker and specify their medical treatment preferences.
  3. It covers how individuals want to be treated, what they want loved ones to know about them, and their funeral wishes.
  4. Distribute copies of the Five Wishes to relevant parties and keep the original in a safe place at home.
  5. Aging with dignity involves ensuring that family members are aware of an individual's final wishes.

Before we delve into the details of The Five Wishes, let's take a moment to talk about something a little lighter. In our previous episodes, we featured a winery called Billsboro on Seneca Lake. If you ever find yourself in the Finger Lakes area of New York, I highly recommend visiting Billsboro. Their wines are delightful, and the setting in their beautiful old barn is truly picturesque. One wine that stood out to me was their 2022 Sarah, which will be released soon. It's a light and rich-flavored wine that I believe many wine enthusiasts will enjoy.

Now, let's get back to the topic at hand: The Five Wishes. This document is a comprehensive living will that covers various aspects of your healthcare and end-of-life wishes. It was created with the help of the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging and is available in 29 languages.

The Five Wishes addresses five key areas:

1. Choosing a Healthcare Decision-Maker

The first wish allows you to designate the person you want to make healthcare decisions for you if you are unable to do so yourself. This person, known as your healthcare proxy or agent, will have the authority to make medical decisions on your behalf. It's crucial to choose someone you trust and who understands your values and wishes.

2. Defining Your Medical Treatment Preferences

The second wish focuses on your preferences for medical treatment. It allows you to specify the kind of medical treatment you want or don't want in various scenarios. You can outline your preferences for pain management, comfort, and life-supporting treatments. The document provides options for you to be as specific as you'd like, ensuring that your wishes are known and respected.

3. Ensuring Comfort and Dignity

The third wish centers around your desire for comfort and dignity. You can express how you want to be cared for, including specific requests such as having pictures of loved ones in your room, being treated with kindness and cheerfulness, or even being called by a particular name or nickname. This wish allows you to define how you want people to treat you during your healthcare journey.

4. Communicating Your Personal Wishes

The fourth wish is an opportunity for you to communicate your personal wishes to your loved ones. You can express forgiveness, love, and any other sentiments you want your family and friends to know. Additionally, you can outline your preferences for your body after death, such as burial, cremation, or donation. This wish ensures that your loved ones have a clear understanding of your final wishes.

5. Funeral and Memorial Service Preferences

The fifth and final wish covers your preferences for funeral and memorial services. You can specify whether you want a burial or cremation, provide details about your desired memorial service, and even mention how you want to be remembered. This wish allows you to leave a lasting impression and ensure that your funeral arrangements align with your wishes.

The Five Wishes document is easy to use, with checkboxes, circles, and spaces for you to fill in your specific preferences. Once you sign the document, it becomes legally binding and supersedes any previous living will or durable power of attorney for healthcare that you may have had. It's important to distribute copies of the document to your healthcare proxy, family members, doctors, and anyone else involved in your care.

By completing The Five Wishes, you can age with dignity and have peace of mind knowing that your wishes will be respected. It also relieves your loved ones of the burden of making difficult decisions without knowing your preferences.

In conclusion, estate planning is not just about financial matters; it also involves making decisions about your healthcare and end-of-life wishes. The Five Wishes provides a comprehensive framework for addressing these important aspects of your life. By utilizing this document, you can ensure that your wishes are known and respected, and you can spare your loved ones from unnecessary stress and conflict during difficult times.

I encourage you to visit the Five Wishes website or reach out to us at info@rootedpg.com to obtain a copy of this invaluable document. Take the time to complete The Five Wishes and have open conversations with your loved ones about your wishes. It may not be the most enjoyable topic to discuss, but it is an essential part of planning for the future. Remember, aging with dignity is a gift we can give ourselves and our loved ones.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Wine and Dime. If you found this information valuable, please share it with your friends and leave us a review on iTunes. Your support helps us reach more people like you who can benefit from our financial insights. Stay tuned for our next episode, where we will be discussing special needs trusts. Cheers to a well-planned future!

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Money Roots with Amy Irvine
Welcome to "Money Roots," the podcast where personal finance becomes personal. Join host Amy Irvine, CEO of Rooted Planning Group, as she demystifies the world of finance and makes it approachable for everyone, from beginners to financial experts.

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Amy Irvine

Uncorking Amy Irvine!!

If any of you have ever met Amy, you know she is passionate about
three things. Family, Finances, and WINE! This comes through in all
that she does and all that she is. When asked to describe herself she first and foremost states, “I am a wife, a daughter, and hopefully a good friend, who happens to also be a financial planner.” Amy holds a Master’s Degree in financial planning and is a Certified Financial Planner TM , Enrolled Agent, Certified College Financial Consultant, and a Financial Wellness Coach with over 25 years of financial planning and industry experience. She is the Founder and owner of Rooted Planning Group, (Formerly known as Irvine Wealth Planning Strategies LLC), which started in 2016 and has grown to include 6 other planners and 2 part-time staff members. Amy is definitely “doing it her way” and has been recognized by her financial planning colleagues as being a “disrupter,” a title she holds close to her heart and is proud of.

Uniquely, at the age of 44, she decided to not only start her only company, but to act on what she defined as her perfect life and she splits her time between Parrish, Florida and Jasper, New York.
On her website it states, “I love what I do, but I also very much enjoy warmth, good
conversation, wine tastings, and volunteering. New York is extraordinary in the summer and fall, but so is Florida in the winter.”
In 2018, she decided it was time to take the stigma out of finances by combining her passion for finances and wine. She started a podcast called “Wine and Dime,” which highlights a different wine and financial topic each week, and she released her book combining those same two passions, titled, “Uncork Your Finances.”
Many of you may know her as one of the co-founders of the Southern Tier Women’s Financial Conference – a day of collaboration and financial education, which will be hosting it’s sixth year!
To round out her volunteering passion, she often provides financial education to the
community through the financial management program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Steuben County, she serves on the board of Faith-in-Action of Steuben County, volunteers for various Fund For Women of the Southern Tier events, works with the finance committee of the Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, and serves on the board for the Corning Painted Post Historical Society (also known as Heritage Village).
In her downtime, you’re likely to find her with a glass of red wine from one of the many Keuka or Seneca Lake wineries that she highlights in her Wine and Dime Podcast.