Yucca Valley Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills

Separate your instructions from your agent’s role

An advance health care directive can state your health-care wishes and name someone to make health-care decisions. These are related, but distinct, functions. Written preferences communicate what matters to you; naming a decision-maker identifies who may make health-care decisions on your behalf. Considering both helps you avoid relying on an informal conversation to carry all the information.

The person named in the directive has a health-care decision-making role. That role is not the same as authority over your finances. A financial power of attorney serves a different purpose: it concerns financial decisions. If you want someone to handle both health-care and financial matters, treat those as separate planning questions rather than assuming one document covers both.

• Use written instructions to communicate your health-care wishes.
• Use the directive’s agent designation to identify who may make health-care decisions.
• Consider financial authority separately; a financial power of attorney has a different role.

Choose what you want the document to communicate

Before discussing a directive, think about the preferences you want recorded. You might make a private list of the values or concerns you would want a health-care decision-maker to understand, and note any subjects you want to discuss further. This is preparation, not a substitute for the directive itself or for medical advice.

A useful question is: if someone else had to make a health-care decision, what would you want that person to know about your wishes? Another is whether your written instructions and the person you identify are meant to do different things. These questions can help you clarify the purpose of each part without assuming that selecting an agent alone records your preferences.

• Write down the preferences and questions you want to discuss.
• Consider what information would help a named decision-maker understand your wishes.
• Keep the focus on health-care instructions; address financial authority separately.

Make the information findable

Preparing a directive and keeping relevant documents accessible are practical parts of planning. A document that people cannot locate may be difficult for them to consult when needed. Consider where the document will be kept and how the person you identify, and others who may need to know where it is, can find it.

California also has an Advance Health Care Directive Registry. Registering information about an executed directive is a separate step from preparing and keeping the document accessible. The registry does not take the place of the directive or turn a financial power of attorney into a health-care document. If you are considering the registry, distinguish the information you register from the directive itself.

• Decide where the directive will be kept and how relevant people can locate it.
• Treat preparing and storing the document separately from registering information about an executed directive.

Discuss the responsibilities and limits before you decide

When reviewing your plan, ask what responsibilities belong to the person you name and what would require separate authority. The directive can identify someone to make health-care decisions; it does not, by that fact alone, give that person a financial role. If financial decisions are also part of your planning, raise them as a separate matter rather than assuming the health-care directive covers them.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California, including Yucca Valley. A next step is to gather your questions and any existing planning documents for a discussion focused on the health-care wishes you want recorded, the decision-making role you want to designate, and whether you have separate financial-planning questions.