Do I Need a Living Will or Power of Attorney: What to Learn from Bobbi Kristina Brown Tragedy

Bobbi Kristina Brown is still on life support after a tragic accident on January 31 of this year left her extremely brain damaged. She is now being moved from Emory Hospital in Atlanta to a less expensive rehabilitation facility. Bobbi’s tragedy highlights the need for durable power of attorney and health care surrogate forms as part of your Florida Estate plan. Although it is sad to say tragedies like this do occur to young people, and in a case like this you have a woman who is worth $20 million dollars, and her father cant touch it, but he does get to choose when to take her off life support, so he can bleed the estate that he cannot inherit dry.

• Bobbi Brown is the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, and is worth an estimated $20 million dollars after the untimely death of her mother a few years back. 
• Bobby Brown, her father is not legally allowed to inherit any of her money, and she is currently on life support and doctors have determined that she has little to no chance of recovery and that they cannot do anything for her, she is essentially waiting on a miracle.
• The twist in this story is the fact that Bobby does not what to say goodbye to his daughter and he is the only one with the authority to say its time to pull the plug, this has erupted a swarm of family controversy as they fight for the right to let her die ( or alternatively the right to a bigger inheritance)

A good Florida Probate Attorney can show you how to make an estate plan that avoids these issues through two key documents the durable power of attorney and the health care surrogate assignment. 

1. A power of attorney assigns certain rights to make decisions to a party who is your representative. These can be done for all decisions be it financial, social or otherwise. On the other hand
2. A health care surrogate makes decisions solely related to health care and you can choose what sets off the surrogates assumption of authority i.e. if you are incapacitated or even just after the age of 70 maybe you want an adult child of yours to make these decisions, you can show the hospital he has that right with these documents.

Bobbi Brown’s story is full of tragedy as it is and these grieving family members do not need to be embroiled into an estate dispute. It could all be avoided with good planning and responsible surrogates.