Berkeley Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills

Start by deciding what you want to clarify

When reviewing health-care planning documents, separate two questions: what instructions do you want recorded about your care, and who should make decisions on your behalf? An advance health care directive can address both by expressing health-care wishes and identifying a decision-maker. If you already have a directive, first consider whether its written instructions still reflect your preferences and whether the people who may need it can find it.

Changing treatment preferences is not the same task as reconsidering the person named to make decisions. You might want to keep your selected decision-maker but clarify your instructions, or retain your instructions while discussing whether the named person remains the right choice. Treat each question separately so a proposed change to one part does not obscure the other.

• Review whether the directive records the health-care wishes you want communicated.
• Separately consider whether the person identified to make decisions remains your choice.
• Identify whether the concern is about the document’s content, its accessibility, or both.

Compare the directive with other planning documents

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and decision-making. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial matters, not health-care preferences. Comparing the documents can help you spot a mismatch in purpose—for example, expecting a financial document to communicate treatment wishes, or expecting a health-care directive to address financial decisions.

The comparison is useful even if you do not intend to change either document. Consider what each is meant to communicate, who may rely on it, and whether the information you want available appears in the document suited to that purpose. Keep questions about medical care separate from questions about how a document functions; choices about treatment should reflect your own preferences and are not a substitute for legal document review.

• For health-care wishes and health-care decision-making, review the advance health care directive.
• For financial matters, review the financial power of attorney.
• If a concern spans both areas, identify which document addresses each part rather than assuming one replaces the other.

Plan for people to find the information

Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. In practical terms, creating or updating a directive and making its existence known are separate planning steps. Consider who may need to locate or refer to the document, and what would help them know where to look. These are preparation questions, not a claim that any particular registration or storage choice is required.

Before discussing a possible change, gather the documents you want to compare and note where they are kept and who knows about them. You can also write down the questions you want answered: whether the instructions remain clear to you, whether the named decision-maker should change, and whether the people who may need the directive know how to access it. This helps keep the conversation focused on your actual concern.

• Bring the directive and any financial power of attorney you want to compare.
• Note what prompted the review: changed preferences, a question about the named decision-maker, or difficulty locating the document.
• List who may need to know where the directive is kept.

Choose the next step based on the issue

If your concern is limited to treatment preferences, focus your review on whether the directive expresses those wishes. If the concern is who should make health-care decisions, address that separately from the instructions. If people may not be able to find the document, consider accessibility as its own practical issue. These distinctions help you decide what to discuss without assuming that every concern calls for the same change.

A useful next step is to bring the relevant documents and your questions to a planning conversation with the firm. The office is in Novato, with virtual services available throughout California. The goal is to identify which document relates to your concern and what, if anything, you want to review further.