Future Planning Guide

The Arc of Massachusetts Future Planning Guide is a valuable resource for individuals and families preparing for the future of a loved one with a disability.

Two important steps in future planning are:

Identifying a successor—or team of successors—who can continue providing support and advocacy.
Documenting the knowledge, responsibilities, and personal information that future caregivers and supporters will need.

The Future Planning Guide is an editable PDF designed to help families organize and share this critical information. It builds upon the longstanding tradition of the “Letter of Intent,” a document created by parents and caregivers to communicate their wishes, insights, and guidance for those who may one day assume a supportive role.

In addition to personal preferences and daily routines, the guide provides space to record important health, financial, legal, social, and other life information that can help ensure continuity, stability, and quality of life for the individual being supported.

We developed this guide as a practical planning tool for families. The requested fee helps support and sustain this program so that it remains available to individuals and families in the years ahead.

The planning guide has seven sections:

Section 1: About Us – Family and Individual: General information about the individual including likes/dislikes, characteristics, social activities/interests, and background on family and significant others in one’s life.
Section 2: Work and Home – the Individual: This section notes what the individual does during the day including work, volunteer, day services, and other regular daily activities. It also notes living situation with options to check off and then describe them.
Section 3A: Supporting Independence and Adult Life – General
Section 3B: Supporting Independence and Adult Life – Detailed
- These two sections are presented as one section with two distinct parts. It allows respondents to choose what makes the most sense. 3A is a general listing of five functional areas such as communication and judgment or decision making. 3B allows individuals and families to list responses on all the activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living.
Section 4: Health and Medical Information: Specific documentation of health information.
Section 5: Legal and Financial Information: This section includes all possible legal categories, including supported decision-making, guardianship, and conservatorship, as well as health decision-making.
Section 6: Future Support Details: An opportunity to integrate details of the individual’s support team, as well as their desired life.
Section 7: Sharing and Maintaining Your Future Plan: This section reinforces reviewing the plan regularly and ensuring that successor(s) and individual know where they can find the plan.