A Last Will and Testament dictates what happens to your assets when you die, and naming who will become guardian of your minor children.

Having a Last Will and Testament is an absolute necessity, to ensure that your assets are distributed to your heirs the way you desire. If you have no Will, the state of Arizona writes one for you, according to statute, and your assets may not be distributed in the way you would have wanted them to be. All Wills get probated (Trusts do not).

A Living Will addresses your wishes for your medical directives and final arrangements. Do you agree to an autopsy? Do you want to be cremated or buried? Where? Do you want to donate organs? If you are determined to be in a state from which you will not come back, by a physician, (think vegetative state, permanent coma), do you want your loved ones to do everything they can to keep your body alive, or do you want them to pull the theoretical plug? If in this state, do you want to just be kept comfortable (think morphine) or do you want your loved ones to have artificial food and water fed to you through a feeding tube, and to allow procedures like CPR and electric shock to keep your body alive?

Terri Schiavo, at 41 years old, had a heart attack, and was in a persistent vegetative state for over 15 years because her husband and her parents did not agree on how to move forward.  The doctors said her condition was irreversible. Her husband wanted to put an end to the life-sustaining measures being taken to keep her body alive, because Terri had once told her husband “I don’t want to be kept alive on a machine.” But she never wrote it down. Her parents did not agree, and Terri had not executed a Living Will.  The parties went to court for years, and all 30 legal opinions supported the husband’s wish to put an end to the life-sustaining measures. Finally, after 15 years of being kept alive by artificial means, Terri was taken off of life support.

Make your own decision NOW.  A Living Will allows you to do that.