Sheldon Lazarow

A serious diagnosis — cancer, a neurological condition, heart disease, anything that changes your sense of how much time you have — shifts your priorities in ways that are hard to describe until you've been through it.

Suddenly, the things you've been putting off matter differently. And one of the most important things many people have been putting off is an estate plan.

If you've just received a serious or terminal diagnosis, this article is for you. Not to add to your burden — but to help you understand what can be done, why it matters, and how to do it in a way that takes care of the people you love.

Why a Diagnosis Makes This Urgent

For most people, estate planning feels optional. Something to get to eventually. The urgency isn't there because the need feels abstract.

A serious diagnosis removes that abstraction.

It also introduces a time-sensitive legal reality that most people don't think about: estate planning documents can only be created while you have legal capacity. That means you must be of sound mind — able to understand what you're signing and what it means — when the documents are executed.

As certain conditions progress, that window can close. Cognitive capacity can diminish. There may come a point where it is legally too late to create valid documents.

The time to act is now — while you are clear, while you are able, while the documents you create will be unquestionable.

What You Need — And Why Each Document Matters Now

A Durable Power of Attorney This names someone to manage your financial affairs if you become unable to do so yourself. As your condition progresses — through treatment, through difficult periods, through anything that affects your ability to manage day-to-day finances — your agent steps in.

Without this document, your family may not be able to pay your bills, manage your accounts, handle your property, or make financial decisions on your behalf. The only alternative is a court proceeding for conservatorship — expensive, time-consuming, and completely avoidable.

A Healthcare Power of Attorney This names someone to make medical decisions for you when you cannot make them yourself. As your treatment progresses, there will likely be moments — surgeries, procedures, difficult periods — when someone needs to speak for you.

This person needs legal authority, not just family relationship. A healthcare power of attorney provides that authority clearly and immediately.

A Living Will / Advance Healthcare Directive This is your voice when you can no longer speak.

A living will documents your wishes about end-of-life medical care — whether you want life-sustaining treatment in certain circumstances, your wishes about resuscitation, your preferences about pain management and comfort care, what "quality of life" means to you.

This document does two things. First, it ensures that your wishes are followed, not someone else's interpretation of what they think you would have wanted. Second — and this is profound — it removes an enormous burden from the people who love you. Making end-of-life decisions for someone you love, without knowing what they wanted, is one of the hardest things a person can go through. This document spares them that.

A Revocable Living Trust A trust keeps your estate out of probate, transfers your assets directly to your beneficiaries, and gives you control over how and when those assets are distributed. For someone facing a serious illness, a trust also provides for seamless management of your assets during any period of incapacity — your trustee can step in and manage things without any court involvement.

A trust also provides privacy. Unlike a will, which becomes a public document when it goes through probate, a trust transfer is private. Your family's business stays your family's business.

A Will Even with a trust, a will is important — it catches anything that wasn't transferred into the trust, and it is the document that names a guardian for minor children if you have them.

The Window That Can Close

Here is what I want you to understand clearly:

The legal standard for executing estate planning documents is called testamentary capacity for a will and legal capacity for a trust and powers of attorney. It requires that you understand what you are signing, what it means, and what effect it will have.

This is not a high bar in most circumstances. But certain conditions — particularly those that affect cognition, such as some cancers that have spread to the brain, dementia, or progressive neurological diseases — can affect capacity over time.

Once capacity is genuinely impaired, it may be legally impossible to create valid documents. At that point, the only option is court supervised guardianship and conservatorship — the most expensive, most intrusive, and most avoidable outcome.

The documents you create today, while your capacity is clear, are legally unassailable. They reflect your wishes at a time when no one can question your ability to make them.

Create them now.

A Note About Family

A serious diagnosis often brings family together in beautiful ways. It can also surface tensions and conflicts that have been dormant for years.

An estate plan — clearly drafted, unambiguous, reflecting exactly what you want — is one of the most loving things you can leave your family. It removes the uncertainty that fuels conflict. It answers the questions before they become disputes. It says, clearly and legally, what you wanted to happen.

Families fight over estates not because they are bad people, but because grief is hard and ambiguity is a breeding ground for conflict. A clear plan removes the ambiguity.

In 50 years of legal practice — including years spent as a trial attorney— Sheldon Lazarow has seen what happens when a plan is missing or unclear. He designs every plan with the explicit goal of protecting not just your assets, but your family relationships.

The Process Is Gentler Than You Expect

Many people facing a serious diagnosis put off estate planning because they don't have the energy for another difficult conversation. They are already navigating medical appointments, treatment decisions, family stress, and their own emotional landscape.

The conversation with Mr. Lazarow is not another burden. It is a relief.

He has sat with many people in exactly your situation. He knows how to make the process efficient, clear, and as comfortable as it can be. He will come to you if necessary. He will work around your medical schedule. He will move as quickly as you need.

And when it's done — when the documents are signed, when you hold the booklet that explains everything your family needs to know, when you know that the people you love are protected — the relief is real.

If a Family Member Has Been Diagnosed

If you are reading this not for yourself but for a parent, a spouse, or another family member who has received a serious diagnosis — the same urgency applies.

If your loved one still has legal capacity, now is the time to gently raise this conversation. Not to add stress, but to protect them and to protect your family.

If you're not sure whether your loved one has capacity, or if you're concerned the window may be closing, call us immediately. We can advise you on the situation and, if appropriate, move quickly.

Serving Tucson and All of Southern Arizona

Lazarow Law Firm, P.L.C. serves clients throughout Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Green Valley, Sierra Vista, and all of Southern Arizona. We understand that circumstances vary and we work to accommodate yours.

📞 (520) 623-5856 ✉ [email protected]m 

Call us today. This is one of those things where waiting truly costs you — and the people you love.

Sheldon Lazarow is a Tucson estate planning attorney with 50 years of legal experience. He has helped many families navigate estate planning during difficult medical circumstances with care, efficiency, and genuine compassion. Lazarow Law Firm, P.L.C. | 25 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85705.