Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Paradise

Plan the instructions and the decision-maker as separate parts

A directive can record your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those functions answer different questions. The written instructions communicate what you want; naming someone identifies a person to make decisions in the health-care role described by the directive. Thinking through both parts can help you avoid treating a named person as a substitute for clearly expressing your preferences.

This page focuses on documenting treatment preferences and making the document accessible. If your main question is whom to name, that is a separate decision from deciding what you want the document to say. Consider both questions deliberately, without assuming that one automatically answers the other.

• What health-care wishes do you want to put in writing?
• Who do you want identified to make health-care decisions?
• How will the people who may need the document know where to find it?

Understand what the document does not cover

The person identified in an advance health care directive has a health-care decision-making role. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role. Naming someone in a health-care directive therefore should not be treated as giving that person financial authority.

Keep the purpose of each document clear when organizing your plans. If you want someone to handle financial matters, that is a different planning question from documenting health-care wishes or identifying a health-care decision-maker. The directive’s role is not a substitute for a financial power of attorney.

Make your written preferences findable

Preparing a directive and keeping it accessible are practical parts of planning. A document cannot communicate your written preferences to people who do not know it exists or cannot locate it. Consider, as an optional preparation step, deciding where you will keep the document and which people may need to know how to find it. You can also make a simple list of those people and the document’s location to guide a planning conversation.

Registration is a separate matter from preparing and keeping the document accessible. The California Secretary of State provides information about an Advance Health Care Directive Registry. The distinction matters: registry information does not replace the practical task of considering how the people who may need your directive can locate it.

• Optional: identify a consistent place for the document and consider who should know its location.
• Optional: note questions you have about the registry separately from questions about your written preferences.

A practical way to prepare for a planning conversation

You may find it useful to write down, in your own words, the health-care preferences you want to discuss and any questions about how to express them in a directive. Separately, note whom you are considering identifying to make health-care decisions. Keeping these lists distinct can make it easier to see whether your questions concern the instructions, the named person, or both.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California, including for people in Paradise. A useful next step is to gather your questions about written preferences, the health-care decision-maker role, and document accessibility so the planning discussion can focus on the issues that matter to you.