BUT WILL YOU LIVE TO COLLECT IT?
Critical illness insurance a concern
JAMES DAW (continue)

Unfortunately, not all policyholders will have the luxury of time, consciousness or mental capacity. And some financial advisers have only awakened recently to the potential complications for those individuals.

Advisers are starting to urge their clients to talk these matters over with their lawyers, and to consider revising both their wills and living wills, known in Ontario as the power of attorney for property and the power of attomey for personal care.

The most dramatic complication is whether you would want someone to authorize extraordinary efforts to extend your life long enough to qualify for the insurance benefit.

Toronto lawyer Jordan Atin of Hull & Hull, which boasts it is Canada's largest estate-litigation firm,said yesterday there can be family conflict if an ill person has named one person to be his or her attorney for personal care and another person his or her attorney for property.

The person in charge of money matters may have a different point of view than the person responsible for the ill person's comfort and well-being. And while an attorney for personal care may direct the attomey for property to dispense money for care, there is no reciprocal power to direct the attorney for personal care to try to keep a person alive, Atin said.

"I can tell you that I lead many presentations and seminars to lawyers and, quite frankly, I have never heard that raised, especially with respect to the dramatic situation of having the attorney for personal care having to keep the person alive to qualify for the insurance policy," said Atin.