Keep affairs in order

Three weeks after his death, actor Gary Coleman's body has been cremated. Per his wishes, no funeral will be conducted. His remains and property will be securely stored until the executor of his estate can be determined.

Coleman died May 28 from a brain hemorrhage after suffering a fall in his Santaquin home. His former wife, Shannon Price, ordered doctors at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo to disconnect life support a day after he fell into a coma.

Since Coleman's death, at least two wills have surfaced. Price says she has an addendum to a will dated 2007 that names her as the sole heir to the actor's estate. In the meantime, Coleman's parents, from whom he has been estranged for several years, entered — but later withdrew — a claim to control Coleman's estate and remains.

These events are a cautionary tale about keeping one's affairs in order with respect to medical directives and estates. Documents should be kept up to date and readily accessible. Families should have frank conversations about their respective wishes regarding end-of-life health care, funeral services, disposition of property and when applicable, the selection of guardians for minor children.

Even when one's wishes are clearly defined, some family members may dispute wills and trusts. It may not be possible to honor one's end-of-life wishes for a peaceful and willed death under certain circumstances. Here again, families may dispute the decision to remove a loved one from life support.

The Terri Schaivo case, in which there were no medical directives, resulted in a protracted legal battle between her husband, who sought to have her feeding tube removed after she, at age 25, suffered cardiac arrest reportedly linked to a potassium deficiency, and her parents, who disputed physicians' findings that she was in a "persistent vegetative" state.

After 13 years of legal wrangling, interventions by Florida's legislative and executive branches and attempts to bring the matter before the U.S. Supreme Court, Schiavo's feeding tube was removed and she was allowed to die in November 2003.

The events divided a family, which was experiencing its own tragedy.

Many of these pitfalls could be avoided with planning, declaring one's wishes verbally and in legal documents, as well as keeping open lines of communication so one's wishes are understood and, hopefully, carried out when the time comes.