August is National Make-A-Will Month, a good reminder to take care of something many of us know we should do but often put off: making a plan for the people and causes we care about.

Only about 1/3 of Americans have a will.

A will is important, but a complete plan goes beyond deciding who receives your belongings. It can include reviewing your life insurance and beneficiary designations, choosing who can make financial and healthcare decisions if you cannot, documenting your end-of-life wishes, and making sure the people closest to you know what you want.

And that last part is especially important when it comes to organ donation.

Your Family Needs to Know Your Wishes, Too

Putting your wishes in a will or other estate-planning document is important, but it should never replace a conversation with your family.

In an unexpected medical crisis, your family may need to understand your wishes long before anyone has located or reviewed your will. An advance healthcare directive or living will can document your healthcare preferences, including end-of-life decisions and organ donation wishes.

If organ donation is important to you, register your decision and tell your family. Federal organ-donation guidance specifically encourages registered donors to share their decision with their families.

It is also helpful to understand how end-of-life care and organ donation can intersect.

Organ donation is possible only in specific medical circumstances, only about 2% of all deaths. In some cases, a potential organ donor may remain on ventilated support while donation is evaluated and coordinated. That does not mean medical teams keep someone on a ventilator indefinitely – only a short time.

For donation after brain death, physicians must first determine that there has been a complete and irreversible loss of brain function and declare the patient legally dead. Ventilated support can temporarily maintain blood flow to organs while donation is coordinated.

Donation after circulatory death, or DCD, is different. In these cases, the decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatment is made by the family and hospital care team. Donation is considered separately. Life-sustaining support may continue while donation is evaluated and coordinated, but organ recovery occurs only after support is withdrawn, the patient’s heart permanently stops, and a physician declares death.

These are deeply personal decisions. Talking about them ahead of time can spare your family from having to guess what you would have wanted during an already difficult moment.

National Make-A-Will Month is a great time to:

• Create or update your will.
• Review your life insurance and make sure your beneficiaries are current.
• Review beneficiary designations on retirement and other financial accounts.
• Complete or update your advance healthcare directive/living will and healthcare power of attorney.
• Make sure your family knows where important documents are located and who to contact.
• Register as an organ, eye and tissue donor and talk with your family about your decision.
• Consider the people and charitable causes you want to be part of your legacy.

Beneficiary designations can also allow certain assets, including life insurance and retirement accounts, to pass directly to the people or charitable organizations you select rather than through your will.

Leave a Legacy of Life in Kentucky

For more than three decades, Donate Life Kentucky Trust has worked to strengthen Kentucky’s donation and transplant community through trusted education, family support and programs that save and improve lives.

Estate gifts are welcomed by Donate Life Kentucky Trust and are an important part of sustaining that work for future generations.

A gift through your will or estate can help ensure that Kentucky students continue learning the facts about donation, transplant patients and families can find support when they need it most, donor families are honored and cared for, and Kentuckians continue to receive trusted information about the lifesaving impact of organ, eye and tissue donation.

You don’t have to choose between taking care of the people you love and supporting a cause you believe in. Your estate plan can do both. Charitable gifts can be structured through a will or trust, and some assets can also be designated directly to a nonprofit through beneficiary designations.

This National Make-A-Will Month, make the appointment. Review the paperwork. Have the conversation.

Make your wishes known today so the people you love don’t have to wonder and worry.

And if donation has touched your life, consider making a gift part of the legacy you leave behind.

This information is provided for general educational purposes and is not legal, financial or tax advice. Consult an attorney, financial advisor or other qualified professional regarding your individual estate plan.