Heritage Trust Federal Credit Union is Helping with End of Life Planning

(Mount Pleasant, S.C.)—2/13/2017 — Heritage Trust Federal Credit Union and the Medical University of South Carolina recently teamed up to offer a community educational workshop on the financial and health care sides of End of Life Planning. This new community initiative is designed to bring awareness to resources made available through Heritage Trust and the MUSC Palliative Care program.

At the event, Heritage Trust’s Wealth Management group covered all of the financial aspects needed to pre¬plan, including, Power of Attorney, beneficiaries and the types of insurance and coverages individuals may need or want to leverage like long-term care, Medicare/Medicaid benefits, annuities, disability insurance and others. Kirk Matenaer of Franklin and Associates answered detailed questions about Medicare coverage and Long-Term Care and Sabrina Call, representing the Law Firm of Cynthia O’Dell provided additional information on Power of Attorney and Estate Planning. Resource documents were provided to help participants with effective planning steps.      

Mary Catherine Dubois from the MUSC Palliative Care program educated the group on how Palliative care works and how it differs from Hospice care. Palliative care is a specialized treatment designed to ease suffering by improving the quality of life for individuals with serious illness and MUSC has one of the top programs in the state for adults and children. Palliative care is designed to provide comfort to individuals that may be dealing with a life-threatening medical condition at any time throughout the course of their illness. Mary Catherine went on to emphasize the importance of having an Advanced Care Directive specifically a SC healthcare power of attorney to ensure physicians provide the type of care you may wish to experience if you were to become seriously ill or injured. “Most importantly is that people talk to their loved ones about their wishes for end-of-life care as it is the loved ones who will be left to make these difficult medical decisions if the patient cannot talk. This is the greatest gift you can give your loved ones,” commented Mary Catherine Dubois.

“Pre-planning for long-term and end of life care can make things much less painful for individuals confronted with a life challenge. Our team is excited to come together with MUSC to present information on a topic that will affect everyone in one way or another.” said David Davis, Heritage Trust Financial Advisor.

Together, Heritage Trust and MUSC will be expanding this series throughout the Charleston region to provide the community access to more resources and information.