Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Bell

Begin with the decision you want the document to support

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are related but distinct functions. If your immediate concern is how your preferences should be communicated, focus first on the instructions you want recorded. If the main question is who should speak for you, the decision is about selecting an agent.

A living will is often discussed in connection with written treatment preferences. When comparing documents, look at what the document says it does: an advance health care directive can express health-care wishes, and it may also identify a decision-maker. Do not assume that a document focused on choosing someone captures the preferences you want that person and others to know.

• Ask whether the document records health-care wishes, identifies someone to make health-care decisions, or does both.
• Separate questions about the content of your preferences from questions about who should make decisions.

Compare your existing documents before changing anything

Gather the health-care directive or other document you currently rely on, along with any financial power of attorney. Compare their purposes rather than treating them as interchangeable. An advance health care directive can address health-care wishes and decision-making; a financial power of attorney has a different financial role.

This distinction matters when identifying a gap. A financial power of attorney does not serve the same role as an advance health care directive for expressing health-care wishes. Likewise, a directive that identifies a health-care decision-maker does not, by that fact alone, perform the financial role of a financial power of attorney.

• Note which document addresses health-care wishes and which addresses financial matters.
• If you are considering a change, identify the specific preference or function you believe is missing before deciding what to revise.

Make the information usable by the people who may need it

Preparing the relevant documents and keeping them accessible are practical parts of planning. Consider who may need to know where your directive is and how they could locate it. You can make a simple list of the people you want to inform and the documents they may need to find; this is a preparation step, not a substitute for the directive itself.

Registration is a separate consideration. Preparing and keeping a directive accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. A registry entry and the document serve different practical purposes, so consider both questions when reviewing how your wishes will be available.

• Before a planning conversation, bring the documents you already have and note where they are kept.
• Consider who should know how to locate the directive, then separately consider whether registering information about an executed directive is relevant to your plans.

Choose a next step based on the gap you found

If your documents do not clearly capture the health-care wishes you want communicated, make those preferences the focus of your review. If you are unsure whether a document is about health care or finances, compare its stated role with the other documents you have rather than relying on its title alone. If the open question is who should make health-care decisions, treat that as a separate agent-selection decision.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves clients virtually throughout California from its Novato office. A useful next step is to organize your current documents and write down what you want each one to accomplish before discussing possible changes.