I was just reading on a legal website about how an uncle held a power of attorney over the deceased grandmother, and now the uncle is excluding certain family members from attending the grandmother’s funeral. It sounds like that family had some major issues with one another to get to the point that one family member was excluding other family members from saying their final good-byes to their deceased grandmother. According to the website, the uncle held an advance health care directive (aka health care power of attorney) and paid for the funeral arrangements. He was using the fact that he paid for the funeral as justification for controlling who could attend the funeral service.
This sad situation could have been avoided if proper planning and instructions had been in place to mitigate any family fighting.
For example, if you anticipate a family conflict, you could build provisions into your estate plan through your advance health care directive and final arrangements about how you would like things to be handled. You could specify that all family members can attend your funeral service, or if you wish, you could also exclude someone from attending your service. It also helps to choose a level-headed agent who will carry out your wishes. If you don’t specify your wishes in advance, you could be setting up your family to fight over what should be done. Avoid ambiguity and make your wishes known.
