Who will make health care decisions for you if you can’t? Who will pay your bills and manage your assets?
Making key decisions now about who would act on your behalf if you lose your ability will not only ensure that your wishes are carried out but also avoid a legal crisis for your loved ones that can land them in court.
What Are Advance Directives?
Advance Directives refer to the documents you create that name your “fiduciaries” – decision-makers you trust – to act on legal, financial and health care matters on your behalf in the event you are incapacitated.
Executing a Power of Attorney and Health Care Proxy now, while you can make careful decisions will allow you to control who speaks for you and guide their decisions even if you are incapacitated. Advance directives also avoid any potential conflicts or uncertainties among family members about your finances, medical care and wishes.
For example, you can decide whether you want to be kept alive with ventilators or tube feeding, or if you want artificial life support if you have suffered a loss of brain function. What are your feelings about organ donation? How would you like your body to be disposed of after death? These are all questions that you can answer clearly with advance directives.
Commonly Utilized Advance Directives
Health care proxy
The health care proxy (HCP) allows you to designate an agent in advance to make decisions on your behalf if you later become incapacitated. Also called in some states a durable power of attorney for health care, the proxy form designates someone else to ensure that the wishes you have expressed—in your health care declaration (HCD), often referred to as a “living will,” are carried out, and to make health care determinations on your behalf if you’re not capable or don’t have a HCD. The health care proxy is sometimes combined with a HCD, but it is our practice at Pierro, Connor & Strauss to combine the two tools in one legal instrument along with a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) release section.
Advance Directives Team
CARYN B. KEPPLER, ESQ.
AARON E. CONNOR, ESQ.
LOUIS W. PIERRO, ESQ.
