The International Association of Emergency Medical Services Chiefs (IAEMSC) has announced it has partnered with the national Wills for Heroes Foundation to facilitate and promote the availability of free estate planning services to the emergency medical services community. An explanation of the program will also be presented at the 2011 IAEMSC Leadership Summit being held in Washington, DC on October 28-31, 2011.
The Wills for Heroes Foundation provides the tools, knowledge and relationships with national first responder organizations to assist bar associations and other organizations with establishing Wills for Heroes programs in their individual states. The Wills for Heroes program uses volunteer attorneys who prepare wills, advanced care directives and power of attorney documents at no charge to first responders and their families, citing the motto: “protecting those who protect us.” The IAEMSC partnership is the foundation’s first affiliation with an emergency medical services professional association.
“EMS saves lives. Fewer things could be more noble. The Wills for Heroes Foundation is proud to serve the brave men and women of our EMS community,” said Daniel J. McKenna of the Wills for Heroes Foundation Board of Directors.
“Proper estate planning can be critical to the family of a first responder who dies in the line of duty,” said IAEMSC President Lawrence E. Tan, who is also the chief of New Castle County (DE) EMS and an attorney. “EMS chiefs can use the Wills for Heroes project to better care for their personnel and their families—at no charge to the organization or the responder.”
The International Association of EMS Chiefs (IAEMSC) is a professional association established to support, promote and advance the leadership of response entities and to advocate for the EMS profession. The IAEMSC membership consists of leaders from both career and volunteer services, representing a diverse group of public and private EMS agencies that responded to over 3.3 million emergencies and transported over 2.78 million patients. Information regarding the 2011 IAEMSC Leadership Summit is available on their web site at www.iaemsc.org.
The Wills for Heroes Foundation works nationwide with volunteer attorneys and affiliate organizations to provide free wills and other estate planning documents to America’s first responders, including EMS, police officers and firefighters. Since November, 2001, the charitable 501(c)(3) program , through its volunteers and affiliates, has provided more than 30,000 estate planning documents nationwide. The Wills for Heroes Foundation is overseen by Anthony Hayes, Jeffrey Jacobson, Marshall Morrise and Daniel McKenna. Additional information regarding the foundation and ways to support their mission is available at www.willsforheroes.org.