Georgia Incapacity Planning
Three documents your parent needs before they cannot sign for themselves.
Attorney Melissa Breyer prepares your parent's Financial Power of Attorney, Advance Directive for Health Care, and HIPAA Authorization. Everything is done from home or the facility. Our standard turnaround is 72 hours from payment to signed documents ready.
On a hospital deadline? Call 770-710-3422 instead of waiting on a call back.
Talk to Us First
Families come to us at different points
Some families call us the day after a hospital discharge, with paperwork the facility needs signed this week. Others call us a few weeks after a diagnosis, while they are still touring facilities and figuring out the next step. And some call us months ahead, while their parent is still fully independent, because they watched another family in the neighborhood go through this without a plan and decided not to be that family.
Every one of these is the right time.
What this package lets your family do
When your parent cannot speak for themselves, someone still has to act. These three documents decide whether that person is someone your parent picked, or someone a judge picks.
Talk to the doctors
Get the test results, the medication list, and the discharge date. Make the call your parent would have made about their own care.
Pay their bills
Use your parent's own money for your parent's own care. The mortgage, the facility, the taxes, the insurance.
Sign for them
Accept the facility contract. Deal with the bank. Handle Social Security. Move things forward instead of waiting.
Without these three documents, the answer to all of it is no. Not because your family is not trusted. Because no one signed the form that gives them the right to help.
Why families do this before they think they need to
These documents only work if your parent can still sign them. Under Georgia law, the person signing has to understand what the document does. Once a doctor says they can no longer understand, it is too late. Nobody can sign it for them.
If that happens, your family has to go to probate court and ask a judge for guardianship or conservatorship. That is a court case. It takes months. It costs thousands. The whole time, the family may not be able to talk to the doctors, pay the bills, or sign the paperwork the facility is asking for.
The families who put this off usually did not think they were putting it off. They thought they had time. Cognitive decline is rarely announced. Sometimes it arrives with a fall, a stroke, or an infection that changes everything in a week. Signing while your parent is clearly competent is what makes this simple. Waiting is what makes it hard.
What if my parent is already slipping?
This is the fear behind almost every call we get from families in the middle of a change. You are worried you waited too long. You noticed the confusion. The repeated questions. The lost words. And now you are wondering if it is already too late.
The Honest Answer
Early stage cognitive decline does not automatically disqualify someone from signing. The legal test in Georgia is whether they understand what the document does at the moment they sign it. A person can have a diagnosis and still be legally competent to sign that day.
Melissa gets on the phone with you and your parent before we draft anything final. She talks with your parent directly. She asks the questions that let her make an honest call about capacity. If she believes it is the right time to move forward, we move. If she believes the window has already closed, she will tell you, stop the process, and refund your payment before we begin drafting.
You do not have to know the answer before you contact us. That is what the call is for.
If your parent is in the hospital right now
Hospital Deadline
If your parent is in the hospital right now, call 770-710-3422 before you do anything else. As long as your parent can still understand what they are signing, we can move.
We regularly work with families whose parent is in the hospital or a short-term rehab facility and needs documents signed in days, not weeks. Witnesses and a notary can usually be arranged through the facility’s social worker or chaplain. Tell us your timeline on the call and we will do our best to accelerate. We cannot promise same-day turnaround, but the sooner you call, the more we can do.
The three documents, and what each one does
Together, these three documents give a person your parent trusts the legal right to step in and help. Without them, the facility, the bank, and the doctors will not let anyone help.
Financial Power of Attorney
This lets a person your parent trusts manage their money. Pay their bills. Talk to Social Security. Sign the facility paperwork. Deal with the bank. Handle the taxes.
Without it, banks will not talk to the family. The facility will not accept anyone else’s signature on their contract. Bills can pile up while nobody has a legal way to pay them from your parent’s accounts.
Advance Directive for Health Care
This does two things. It names the person your parent trusts to make medical decisions when they cannot. It also puts your parent’s wishes in writing about the treatments they do and do not want near the end of life.
Without it, doctors are not allowed to take direction from family. Hospitals will call every child and ask each one their opinion, and if the family does not agree, treatment gets delayed. If your parent has strong feelings about a feeding tube, a ventilator, or comfort care, this document is the only way those wishes get followed.
HIPAA Authorization
This is the form that lets doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies share your parent’s medical information with the family.
Without it, the hospital cannot legally tell you what medication your parent is on, what the test results are, or when they are being discharged. Every phone call hits a wall. HIPAA is a federal privacy law, and it does not care that you are the child. The signed form is what opens the door.
Not sure what your parent already has?
Most families are not. Gather whatever paperwork you can find and get on a call. We will tell you what is missing, what still works, and what needs to be redone.
Free 15-minute call. No obligation.Who you are working with
Melissa Breyer, Esq.
Georgia Estate Planning Attorney
Melissa is a Georgia-licensed estate planning attorney with nine years of experience. She personally reviews every set of documents that leaves this office, including incapacity documents like these, and does not pass the work to associates. When you and your parent get on the attorney call, you are talking directly to Melissa.
When you click "Talk to Us First," you will first talk to Shawn, who handles intake. He listens to your situation and gets you scheduled with Melissa.
How the process works
You pay the $550 flat fee to start the process.
You fill out a short intake form with your parent's information and who they want to name as their agent for each document.
Our team prepares the three documents from your parent's answers.
You and your parent get on a call with Melissa. She walks through every page in plain words, checks that everything matches what your parent wants, and answers questions.
We finalize the documents and send them to you for signing.
Your parent signs with the required witnesses and a notary. This can happen at home, at the facility, or at a bank. We tell you exactly who has to be there.
You send us the signed copies. We keep a set on file. You get the originals and digital copies for your records.
Standard turnaround is 72 hours from payment to signed documents ready. Melissa works with a set number of families each week so every family gets her full attention on the call. If the current week is full, we will tell you before you pay and give you the next opening.
If your family is on a hospital deadline, tell us on the intake call. We do not promise same-day turnaround, but we regularly move faster when the medical timeline calls for it.
What it costs and what is included
Flat fee: $550 for the full three-document package. No hourly billing. No surprise charges.
Included
- All three documents prepared for your parent from scratch, not filled in from a template
- A phone call with Melissa Breyer, our Georgia-licensed estate planning attorney, to review every page
- Written instructions for exactly how to sign and who to use as witnesses
- Digital copies you can send to the hospital, the facility, and the bank
- Original signed copies mailed back to you
Not Included
- A last will and testament
- A trust of any kind
- Deed transfers or property titling
- Help with a guardianship or conservatorship case in probate court
This $550 credits in full toward a will package or full estate planning package if you and Melissa decide on the attorney call your family needs one.
How signing works
The whole process happens by phone and email. Nobody has to travel to us. But the final signing has to happen with your parent in person, with the right people in the room.
Where signing happens. Your parent’s home, their facility, or a bank. Wherever works for them.
Notary. The Financial Power of Attorney has to be signed in front of a notary public. Many banks have a notary who will do this for free if your parent is a customer. Most senior living facilities have a notary on staff. You can also hire a mobile notary who comes to your parent’s location for a small fee, usually $25 to $75.
Witness rules
These are the number one thing that gets signings rejected. Please read carefully.
| Document | Witnesses | Who cannot witness it |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Power of Attorney | 1 |
|
| Advance Directive for Health Care | 2 |
|
| HIPAA Authorization | None | No witnesses or notary required. |
If this is confusing, that is normal. The attorney call covers exactly who you can use for your parent’s specific situation.
Your money is safe
If your parent loses capacity between the time you pay and the time we begin drafting, we refund you in full. If Melissa gets on the attorney call and believes it is not the right time to move forward, she will tell you honestly, stop the process, and refund your payment before we begin drafting.
Once drafting has started, the fee is non-refundable. If your parent does not sign the finished documents in time, that outcome is on the family, not on us.
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What Our Clients Say
After my father passed away, my mother had to rely on my father's employer to navigate the estate. It was a disaster. After this experience, I knew I needed a plan. I turned to The Hive Law to set up a trust. I no longer have to worry about my wife and children going through a difficult process if something happens to me. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
My biggest fear was that if I died first, my wife would have no idea how to navigate the estate and legal system. I reached out to The Hive Law and they put my mind at ease immediately. Their process is easy to follow and they took care of everything. The Hive Law is the best decision I've made for my family's future.
Working with Melissa Breyer to set up our Living Trust was a wonderful experience. She and her entire team were knowledgeable, professional, and made the whole process easy to understand. I highly recommend The Hive Law for all your estate planning needs!
We highly recommend Hive Law. They were extremely helpful and professional in guiding us through the process of creating a Revocable Living Trust. Melissa and Shawn were thorough, answered all our questions, and made a potentially confusing process easy to understand.
The Hive Law made the entire estate planning and trust process easy to understand and stress-free. Melissa and Shawn walked us through every step and answered all of our questions. We feel confident that our family is protected. Highly recommend!
My mom chose The Hive firm to help with estate planning after my father passed away. They were very thorough in explaining every step of the process. They made a difficult time much easier to navigate. I highly recommend The Hive Law for anyone needing estate planning services.
I used The Hive Law to help me create a trust for my family. The process was straightforward and Melissa and Shawn made sure I understood each step. They were responsive to all of my questions. I feel much more confident about my family's future now. Highly recommend!
Working with Shawn and Melissa at The Hive Law has been a great experience. They are very knowledgeable and took the time to explain all of our options. They made the process of setting up a trust simple and stress-free. I would highly recommend them to anyone needing estate planning.
The Hive Law Firm, and specifically Melissa, has been wonderful to work with during our estate planning process. She is knowledgeable, patient, and thorough. She answered all of our questions and made the process easy to understand. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
Shawn and Melissa were amazing to work with! My partner and I recently bought a house and wanted to get important things like wills, healthcare directives, etc. set up. They were incredible at answering all our questions and working with us to make sure we felt confident in all of the legal aspects. Having tried to do this online before with one of the DIY tools, it was just an amazing experience to get to talk through what we wanted with a knowledgeable human and have them take care of the details.
Hive Law was awesome to work with! Melissa and Shawn explained everything, kept things stress-free, and were always quick to respond to my questions. They made the whole process simple and smooth from start to finish. Highly recommend if you want a team that's knowledgeable but also easy to work with.
I lost my father in February of this year without any estate planning in place. The process of dealing with the probate court has been overwhelming and expensive. After this experience, I contacted The Hive Law to set up a trust so my children never have to go through what I've been through. Melissa and Shawn were compassionate, knowledgeable, and made the entire process simple. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
I used to know the bare minimum about probate and trust. I first encountered Shawn Breyer on Facebook. He was offering a webinar that I watched. That gave me a better understanding of probate versus trust. I was impressed enough to have him and his wife represent me. I had my initial one on one interview with Melissa Breyer, it went smoothly and she made everything clear. We are now proceeding with getting a revocable trust in place.
The Hive Law has been amazing throughout the process of setting up our trust. Every detail is considered and no stone is left unturned. They have been easy and enjoyable to work with. I would absolutely recommend them! Don't let your estate be turned over to Probate!!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can, and many families try. Free forms are generic templates that do not know your parent’s specific situation, do not always follow current Georgia witness rules, and do not come with an attorney call. When a bank or hospital rejects the form later, your family has to start the whole process over, often when time has run out. The $550 covers documents prepared for your parent’s actual situation and reviewed by a Georgia attorney before they sign.
That is fine. You can fill out the intake form on their behalf using their information. The attorney call can happen with you and your parent on speakerphone, or with just you if your parent is not up for it. Only the final signing requires your parent to be present with a pen.
Maybe not. Older documents can be outdated, missing powers that banks and facilities now require, or written under a different state’s rules. Melissa can review what your parent already has on the attorney call. If the old documents still work, she will tell you.
Yes. We regularly work with families whose parent is in the hospital or a short-term rehab facility. As long as your parent can understand what they are signing, we can move forward. Witnesses and a notary can usually be arranged through the facility’s social worker or chaplain.
Call us. If your parent is in the hospital right now and the family is being asked to make decisions in the next 24 to 48 hours, tell us on the call and we will do our best to accelerate. We cannot promise same-day turnaround, but the sooner you call, the more we can do.
This is more common than you think. Melissa handles it on the attorney call. She talks to your parent directly, walks through what each document actually does, and lets your parent make the call. We do not pressure people into signing. If your parent decides not to sign, we refund your payment.
That is often the smartest time to do this. Your parent is clearly competent, there is no hospital timeline pressing on the family, and Melissa can take her time with your parent on the attorney call. The process is the same and the price is the same. You are just doing it before you have to.
The three documents on this page are Georgia documents built under Georgia law. Melissa is licensed in Georgia only. If your parent lives in another state, please book the call first before paying so we can talk through it.
No. If your parent names you as the agent on a document, you cannot serve as the witness on that same document. This rule catches a lot of families. The attorney call helps you plan around it.
The Financial Power of Attorney and the Advance Directive stay valid until your parent revokes them or passes away. There is no expiration date. Some banks and hospitals prefer to see a recent one, but Georgia law does not require you to redo them.
For a $550 flat fee, we ask for the full payment up front. If cost is the reason you are hesitating, please book the free call and tell us. We would rather talk than lose a family who needs help.
Ready to start
Book a free 15-minute call. We will listen to your situation, answer your questions, and tell you honestly whether we are a fit. No pressure to buy on the call.
Standard turnaround is 72 hours from payment to signed documents ready. Melissa works with a set number of families each week. If the current week is full, we will tell you before you pay.