Standards of Practice: The Weapon or the Shield?

As the revised standards of practice for life care planning are published this year (see page 123 of this issue), questions and issues that have arisen over the years about standards have again come to the foreground. Life care planners want to know more about the process of developing standards of practices and how those standards apply to the individual life care planning practitioner. This article addresses those questions, with a focus on the meaning of standards of practice to the individual practitioner. An attorney who works regularly with life care planners describes how standards can provide protection or be used to diminish the credibility of a life care planner.