Yes, I think so. We've always assumed that my husband would go first, both because he is ten years older and due to various health problems (Parkinson's being just one of them). But life can be unpredictable.
I have both medical and financial power of attorney for him, should I need it, but my worst-case scenario is that something unexpected should happen to me. Right now he could manage fine, but if he should have some cognitive decline in the future, he could find himself in a situation where he needed more care, but not be able to manage the logistics and financial decision-making to make that happen. So I've let my family members know that if anything happens to me, someone else will need to work with my husband to set up a new set of power-of-attorney safeguards. And if he does end up with cognitive decline, and I'm still around, I'll go ahead and set someone else up as a back-up. Right now our kids are still very young adults, so for now my sister is the logical designee, but in the future, hopefully responsibility will transfer to the kids should it be needed.
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