Getting Your Affairs In Order
KAREN O’NEIL, Certified wellness counselor
Interviewed By Rasa Fournier
Where did you receive your training?
I attended the Hawaii Wellness Institute here on Oahu.
How long have you been working as a certified counselor?
Since 2008. My focus is helping people get their affairs in order. It’s something everybody needs to do, but nobody wants to talk about it. I want to take the scary and uncomfortable out of the conversation. My first workbook, A Guide to Getting Affairs in Order, was directed at people who have elderly parents, because we’ll all help somebody else before we’ll take care of ourselves.
End-of-life planning is such an awkward thing to begin, so I guide people through what to ask their parents and what documents they need to have. I speak at retirement homes and I impress upon people that they need to have an Advance Health Care Directive and durable power of attorney.
The Advance Health Care Directive comes with the durable power of attorney, but it can be just for medical, and not necessarily for the financial side. Most people do need a will or a trust. They need to know where to put these documents and how to tend to their bills, life insurance, etc. I find that many people don’t really know what their parents want.
Especially with families today, many are split between Hawaii and the Mainland. They come over here from the Mainland to tend to their parents and they don’t know who their parents’ best friends are, so they don’t know whom to contact. They don’t know that their dad borrowed the neighbor’s lawnmower and they need to return it.
