Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Beverly Hills

Start with the distinction: instructions or decision-making authority?

Consider what you need to clarify. If your main concern is how particular treatment choices should reflect your values, focus on expressing those wishes. If your concern is who can communicate or make health-care decisions when you cannot, the directive can also identify a person for that role. You may want to address both, but writing down preferences and selecting a decision-maker answer different questions.

A financial power of attorney has a different purpose: it concerns financial decisions, not health-care decisions. If the uncertainty is about paying bills or handling financial matters, do not assume a health-care directive answers it. Identifying the kind of decision at issue helps you choose what to discuss next.

• Treatment preferences: What would you want a decision-maker or care team to understand about your wishes?
• Health-care authority: Who do you want identified to make health-care decisions?
• Financial authority: Is the concern instead about managing financial matters?

Make your preferences understandable

A useful planning conversation starts with the choices that matter to you, not with a form in isolation. Think about what you want others to know about your priorities and the kinds of health-care decisions that concern you. If a preference depends on circumstances, identify what you would want the person making decisions to understand about those circumstances.

For example, someone might want a decision-maker to understand that maintaining communication or independence is a significant priority. That is an illustration, not a recommendation about any particular treatment. The goal is to express your own preferences clearly enough to guide a conversation, rather than relying on another person to guess what you would want.

Check who needs to understand the document

A document can only inform the people who know about it and can access it when relevant. As a practical preparation step, consider where you will keep your directive and which people should know how to find it. You can also prepare questions about how to make your wishes and the document accessible to the person you identify.

California court self-help information distinguishes preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible from registering information about an executed directive. Registration and preparation are separate considerations; one should not be mistaken for the other. For planning purposes, first consider whether the people who may need the document can locate it.

Bring the right questions to a planning discussion

Before discussing a directive, write down the decisions you are trying to address and any preferences you want expressed. Consider whether you are asking about treatment wishes, the identity of a health-care decision-maker, or financial authority. Keeping those issues distinct can prevent a health-care document from being treated as an answer to a financial-planning question.

A focused next step is to discuss how your written wishes and choice of decision-maker should fit together, and how the document can remain accessible to the people who may need it. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves Beverly Hills clients virtually from its Novato-based practice.

• Note the treatment preferences you want others to understand.
• Identify any uncertainty about who should make health-care decisions.
• Separate health-care questions from financial authority questions.
• Consider who should know where the document is kept.