Two years ago I was seriously injured when I was hit by a drunk driver while on my way home from work on a Friday night and was mostly unconscious for nearly five days.  Although the police found my drivers license, I live alone so they had to wait until Monday to contact my work place (they found my business cards in my purse)  to find the name of someone to contact in an emergency.  Unfortunately, I had gotten a divorce the year before the accident so the emergency contact information in my personnel files was incorrect as my former husband and I both had new residences and telephone numbers.  They were finally able to track my ex down and he gave them my sister Cate’s contact information.  Cate was finally notified late on Monday and she flew in the next day and was at the hospital that afternoon.  After leaving the hospital on Tuesday night, Cat went to my condo and discovered my elderly dog, Honey, seriously ill after not having food or water since Friday. Cate had to rush Honey to the emergency vet, she couldn’t even take Honey to her regular vet because she had no idea who that was.

I'm usually a very responsible person yet my car accident showed me how completely irresponsible I’d been in connection with the most important things in my life - Honey nearly died because of my laziness.  When I learned about the Living Smart software especially for people like me who live alone, I couldn’t wait to try it since I knew first hand what can happen if you aren’t prepared for the unexpected.  You won’t believe how comprehensive Living Alone is - it covers really important matters that you would never think about if it weren’t included on the software.  Just as important, it is SO EASY to use and affordable.  I intend to give my sister Cate the Living Alone software for Christmas and am recommending it to all my friends.

Carol D.
Phoenix, AZ

I was shocked to get a phone call in the middle of the night notifying me that my incredibly feisty and independent 60 year old aunt Dottie had had a stroke.  Dottie is a widow with no children so I got to the hospital ASAP - and was immediately deluged with hospital personnel asking me questions I couldn’t answer.  I knew nothing about her insurance, where or if she had a health care directive or power of attorney, a living will, written authorization for the hospital or her doctors to share medical information with me or anyone else, and on and on.  Then, when I went to Dottie’s house after leaving the hospital I set off the security alarm after using her keys to enter the house.  I had no idea what the code was so I couldn’t turn it off.  It got worse, not only was the siren blasting, but the police showed up and they were actually going to arrest me because I had no proof that I had any right to be in Dottie’s house until I was finally able to convince them to call the hospital and talk to one of the floor nurses that was taking care of Dottie and knew that I was her niece.

Even after Dottie was “out of the woods” she couldn’t communicate for weeks because the stroke affected her speech and her ability to write.  I didn’t know where she kept her important papers, her bills, things that need to be kept up at her house, how to notify her clients of her situation (Dottie has a small consulting business), what friends to notify, how to return all the messages on her home and cell phone because I didn’t know the access codes (I stayed with her in the hospital most of each day and, since they don’t permit cell phones, I could even answer her home or cell phone during the day), and on and on.  I didn’t know the name of her lawyer, accountant or anyone that could have been a great help under the circumstances.  Dottie had to be transferred to a nursing home for extensive rehabilitation and her health insurance company wouldn’t even talk to me about her benefits. As a result, I couldn’t get her in the best facility possible since I had nothing in writing from her granting me access to that information. Also, I couldn't make sure that she had all of the benefits she deserved from paying the insurance company premiums for all of those years.

After many, many months, Dottie has regained most of the agility she lost from the stroke and I learned a valuable lesson.  The time to be prepared for an emergency is NOW, because after it happens it is too late.  I’ve learned that being prepared for the unexpected is something you should insist upon not only for yourself, but for those you love.  Help is just a Living Smart organizer away.  The Living Alone software had authorizations, instructions and documents that would have taken care of every situation I encountered when trying to help Dottie and I urge everyone to make the very small investment of $69.95 so they never find themselves in the same situation that I did.

My mother died unexpectedly just over a year ago when she was only 50 and I was responsible for dealing with her estate.  Although she had a will and I had the legal authority to address all of the matters relating to her death, I lacked even the most basic information to get started.  I didn’t know who to notify of her death (friends, organizations she belonged to, etc.) so they could attend her funeral; whether she had prepaid for a funeral and, if she had, where was the paperwork; did she have any burial or life insurance policies and, if so, where were the policies and who was her agent that I should call; how many bank or investment accounts did she have and where were they and what were the account numbers; what bills and loans did she have and what are the account numbers; did she have a safety deposit box and, if she did, where is it and where is the key?  Having to undertake such an overwhelming task while being almost completely in the dark was especially hard at a time when trying to cope with the loss of your mother.

No one wants to think about these sorts of things happening but I know from my own experience that all of us need to just suck it up and take care of these matters NOW, regardless of our age or circumstances so we can better help one another when the worst happens.  The cost has always kept me from hiring a lawyer for even the basic things like a will and a living will and I hate computers so I never seriously considered any type of legal software.  However, after a friend of mine showed me the new Living Smart Living Alone software, I knew that it was perfect for me because it’s not only economical and amazingly easy to use (they even let you just print everything out and fill in by hand instead of on the computer if you prefer) but it includes so much more than just legal documents.  It includes instructions for almost anything you can think of as well as schedules to keep all of your financial and other records so that would have made all the difference to me when trying to handle my mother’s estate.  When you buy the software, you also get a special organizer to keep all of your records, documents, instructions, etc. to make it easy for others to help you if you are sick, or worse.

I’m a professional pet and house sitter and the new Living Smart Software includes a form for really thorough pet care instructions, an authorization for me to seek medical care for someone’s pet if it gets sick while under my care, and a house sitting agreement that is also really thorough in addressing all of the responsibilities and rights of both the house sitter and homeowner.  As Living Smart suggests in their Helpful Hints, I require that all of my pet sitting clients fill out the Pet Care Instructions, Authorization to Approve Medical Treatment for the pets, and an Authorization to Enter Residence and I always use their house sitting agreement when I house sit.  They also have an entire section for small business owners like myself in addition to all of the other great things included.  Its not only easy to use but it’s a real bargain, especially when you consider that it can be used for many, many years to come and you can easily make changes as the things in your life change.

It took years of careful planning, hard work and sacrifice to turn my small business into a success and about five weeks for me to nearly lose it because I failed to take the time to put emergency backup plans into place for my business in the event something unforeseen happened to me and I was unable to run my business for some period of time.  My wake up call started with what was supposed to be a three day trip to Mexico to meet with a prospective new supplier for my business.  On my first day in Mexico, I had a heart attack and my three day trip became a two week nightmare.  It took two weeks for me to recuperate enough to be flown back to my home in Arizona so that I could have heart surgery and another three weeks before I was able to give others the information, instructions and written authorization necessary for them to help keep my business afloat until I was well enough to take control again myself.  In the interim, I missed several critical delivery dates; my business line of credit was terminated because I failed to make scheduled meetings with my banker and accountant and they were unable to contact me for weeks while payments and financial filings weren't being made to the bank.  I lost several prospective new customers because I failed to follow up on proposals I had made to them and they received no responses to their numerous calls and e-mails.  My bills went unpaid, no phone calls or e-mails were returned, my business came to a complete halt.

Beth and Jacob had lived together for nearly 5 years when Beth received a phone call from a business associate of Jacob’s telling her that Jacob had become suddenly and seriously ill while out of town on business nearly 1,000 miles from home.  When Beth called the hospital, no one would discuss Jacob’s condition with her.  Beth immediately got on a plane to get to Jacob’s side but when she arrived at the hospital she wasn’t permitted into his hospital room nor would the physicians, nurses or other hospital personnel discuss his medical condition with her.  Jacob’s closest living relative was a sister that he kept in touch with sporadically and it took several days for the hospital to locate her.  The hospital still wouldn’t discuss Jacob’s medical condition with Beth and she was finally allowed into Jacob’s room only after he had recovered enough from surgery to express his wishes.

Charles and Jeanne are married and prided themselves on having up-to-date wills and other estate documents so they thought they were prepared for life’s uncertainties – until Jeanne became suddenly ill and learned she needed dangerous heart surgery.  Charles and Jeanne found out the hard way that Charles wasn’t allowed to even pick up a copy of Jeanne’s x-rays from the hospital because he didn’t have Jeanne’s written authorization; or that when the telephone service went out at their home while Jeanne was in the hospital that he couldn’t schedule a repairman with the telephone company because Jeanne opened up the account and his name wasn’t on it; that the health insurance company that Jeanne had coverage with through Charles company wouldn’t discuss a billing matter at the hospital with Charles because he didn’t have Jeanne’s written authorization, and on and on.  Charles and Jeanne didn’t realize how all of the recent privacy laws affected their ability to help each other when it was needed most.

Wanda and Robert lived together in a house that Robert had purchased before they got together.  When he was 52 and apparently in perfect health, Robert had a stroke and was unable to communicate with anyone for over a month and it was many more months of recovery and rehabilitation before he was mobile on his own.  Robert’s family had never really like Wanda so as soon at they learned of Robert’s stroke, they told the hospital not to allow Wanda in Robert’s hospital room; they asked Wanda to leave Robert’s house since she couldn’t produce anything in writing that proved she had a right to live in the house; they wouldn’t allow Wanda to remove anything that she wasn’t able to prove she owned despite the fact that a significant amount of the furniture, artwork, china and crystal were hers - but she couldn’t prove ownership on such short notice for most of the items and she had no list of her  possessions.  As soon as Robert’s doctors gave the go ahead, his family had him transported back to their home state and placed him in a rehabilitation facility and also told them that Wanda wasn’t allowed to visit Robert.  It took months before Robert was well enough to take control of his own life again and return to his home and Wanda.  As bad as that experience was for Wanda, imagine how much worse it would have been had Robert died and they had failed to make any legal arrangements to protect their relationship and Wanda’s future.

Benjamin and Juanita are married with two young children.  Benjamin has his own small business which was finally very successful after many years of hard work – until he was seriously injured after being hit by a drunk driver.  Benjamin was unconscious for four days and was barely lucid for several weeks after undergoing numerous surgeries for the many injuries he received in the accident.  Although Benjamin engaged several contractors and part time workers for his business, none of them had access to the information needed to keep his business running in his absence, to his computer, cell phone or other resources so they could return business calls, alert customers, creditors and others about the situation nor did anyone else have the legal authorizations to make financial decisions and payments, to talk to the State and Federal Department’s of Revenue to ask for an extension on quarterly payments due while Benjamin was in the hospital, etc.  By the time Benjamin was able to return to his business, his finances were in shambles, he had lost valued customers; and had lost his contractors and part-time workers because no one was authorized to pay them from the business accounts except Benjamin.

Margaret and Christine are sisters who moved in together after both were widowed after many years of marriage.  Four days after Margaret returned from a cruise with friends, she became seriously ill from a bacterial infection she picked up on the ship and her kidneys failed.   Margaret was unable to direct her own medical care, interact with her insurance company, or communicate with Christine about financial and other matters.   Margaret had one child, Ron, who had stopped speaking with his mother after she refused to send him more money after years of his drug use and financial irresponsibility.   Because Margaret failed to make written directions and authorizations to specify who would act on her behalf in an emergency, her son Ron was designated by the state in which Margaret lived to make her medical decisions for her.  Without written authorizations, no one was authorized to interact with Medicare or her supplemental insurance company when billing issues arose; her bills didn’t get paid, etc.   Christine and Margaret always thought that, as sisters, they would legally be allowed to help each other with these matters when the need arose.   Margaret survived her ordeal and both she and Christine now use LIVING SMART SOFTWARE and have put into place the instructions, authorizations and documents necessary so that now each of them can depend on the other to give them the help they need when they need it most.

When Eric graduated from college, he accepted a job in New York City, nearly 1,000 miles away from his home town.  After being in New York for almost two years, Eric was involved in a traffic accident and was seriously injured.  Although Eric had lived with the same roommate as long as he had lived in New York, his roommate didn’t know the personal details of Eric’s life either like who needed to be notified in the event of an emergency and their contact information, who to contact at Eric’s work, whether Eric had legal agreements specifying who the doctors should discuss about his medical condition and, if he did, where to find those forms, etc.  Even if Eric’s roommate knew how to get in touch with Eric’s family, his family didn’t know the details of Eric’s life nor did they have the legal authorization to look after his medical, financial and other matters on Eric’s behalf.  This was a wakeup call for Eric, his family and his roommate who all use the Living Smart Software so they will all be able to help each other in the future.