Santa Monica Advance Health Care Directive and Living Will Planning
An advance health care directive can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. If your main concern is putting treatment preferences in writing, separate that task from choosing who may make decisions. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California, including Santa Monica.
Decide what you want the writing to communicate
Begin with the purpose that brought you to this page: describing your health-care wishes so the people who may need them can find and understand them. An advance health care directive can express those wishes. It can also identify someone to make health-care decisions, but written preferences and the choice of a decision-maker are distinct questions.
For preparation, you may jot down the preferences or concerns you want to address, using your own words. You might also note which points you want to clarify before putting them into a document. These notes are prompts for a planning conversation, not medical recommendations. The focus here is on communicating preferences, rather than on the separate process of selecting a health-care agent.
Ask whether the authority you need concerns health care or finances
The type of authority you are trying to address can change the next step. An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney has a different financial role. A document addressing one kind of authority should not be confused with the other.
If you want to record treatment preferences, keep the discussion centered on health care. If your concern is someone handling financial matters, identify that as a separate planning question. If both concerns matter to you, list them separately so that the document or discussion intended for one purpose is not mistaken for the other. The practical starting point is to name the decision or subject you want addressed before choosing what to discuss next.
Plan how people can find the document
A written preference is useful to the people who may need it only if they can locate the relevant document. As an optional organizational step, consider making a private note of where you keep it and which people may need to know how to find it. You can also write down any questions you have about making the document accessible. These suggestions are about organization; they do not state legal conditions for a directive.
California provides a registry for information about an executed advance health care directive. Registering information about an executed directive is distinct from preparing the document and keeping relevant documents accessible. Consider these as separate matters: the contents of your directive, how people who may need it can locate it, and whether you want to consider registry information for an executed document. Registry information does not replace planning for access to the document itself.
Prepare a focused list of questions
Before a planning conversation, you may find it helpful to write down the preferences you want to communicate, any points you want to clarify, and who may need to locate the document. Note whether your question concerns health-care wishes, identifying someone to make health-care decisions, financial authority, or more than one of these. If you already have a directive, you can also note whether you want to ask about keeping it accessible or registry information for an executed directive.
Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. provides virtual services throughout California from its in-person office in Novato. A useful next step is to identify the question that matters most to you—recording health-care wishes, choosing a decision-maker, or addressing financial authority—and use that as the focus of your inquiry.
Questions to discuss
Can an advance health care directive record preferences as well as identify a decision-maker?
Yes. An advance health care directive can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. If your immediate goal is recording preferences, keep that purpose distinct from the choice of who may make decisions.
Is registry information a substitute for keeping the document accessible?
No. Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Consider both the document and how people who may need it can locate it; registry information does not replace access to the document.
Official resources
General information, not an assessment of your documents or circumstances. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945, and offers virtual services across California. A remote consultation does not itself authorize remote signing or a remote court appearance.
