Advance Health Directive Form: Fill & Download for Free

Wills are… let’s just call them complicated instruments.Clients generally want things to be simple. They just want a document that says “If I die, everything goes to my wife, or to my kids.” Maybe a charity of some sort.This doesn’t work very well in practice.Wills have to go through the probate process. Even in a state that allows for informal probate of a will, there’s court costs involved, and you better hope that the appointed personal representative does a good job and doesn’t screw up the family. Hint: that rarely happens. Probate proceedings open up all manner of attacks on the will itself if someone decides to contest things.If I had a nickel for every story I heard of families who still aren’t on speaking terms because of the fallout from everyone grabbing everything from Great Grandma’s house, I’d be able to retire. People change their minds about who should get what. Clients constantly come in with lists of things that Great Grandma wanted little Billy and Susie to have, and then a couple weeks later, Billy isn’t really the favorite great-grandkid anymore and now Tommy, who took her to town and cut the grass really nice should get the old tools and stuff.Or, when the will was drawn up, it was done poorly. There were only three kids in the picture, and then another was adopted. Or born later. And the original will specified only three kids and their names. You know what happens to the youngest in that scenario?If you wrote the will yourself, it might not meet the requirements for a will in your jurisdiction. Some states recognize a handwritten will signed by the testator (the person issuing the will,) which is called a holographic will. Other states don’t.So, you might think that you wrote a will, but it doesn’t count. And now you’ve died “intestate.” That means your estate plan falls to the state statutes and gets divided up according to the default settings of the state.There may be a lot of assets that don’t have to go through probate. Or there might be a lot of tax consequences to having those assets go through probate. For high net worth estates, an estate tax at the state and/or federal level may end up impacting the estate. Attempting to convey all of it in a will may result in estate taxes, gift taxes to the recipient, or other issues. A will may, or more likely may not be the best instrument or vehicle to address that.Lastly, a will “speaks at death” in legal terms. So, the will doesn’t have any effect until the testator dies. A will would not contain any advanced health directives that are enforceable, for example. A will would not prevent unscrupulous family members from stealing and wasting the estate before death.A good estate planning attorney will be able to identify what a testator needs, and provide a range of options to help create a comprehensive, appropriate estate plan that best meets those needs. That might include a will. And it might include other options, including revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, advanced health directives, advance gifts, and more.Estate planning is a complicated and specialized field of the law. A competent professional can save you literally tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in future costs for a few hundred or few thousand dollars now.You wouldn’t buy a house without having a professional building inspector look it over. You wouldn’t want to undergo major surgery without consulting a professional surgeon first. You wouldn’t try to run a business without hiring an professional accountant.Hire a professional estate planning attorney, and pay them what they’re worth. Trust me, you’ll come out ahead in the long run.

There is no document that gives elders authority to place someone in a home that the Society provides, that I know of.The Advance Health-Care Directive only gives directions on medical choices involving blood, and depending on the person’s choice, DNR declaration.Here is a copy that the Cedar Sinai hospital has on record. [1][1][1][1]Footnotes[1] https://www.cedars-sinai.org/content/dam/cedars-sinai/patients/spiritual-care/documents/jehovahs-witnesses-advanced-health-directive.pdf[1] https://www.cedars-sinai.org/content/dam/cedars-sinai/patients/spiritual-care/documents/jehovahs-witnesses-advanced-health-directive.pdf[1] https://www.cedars-sinai.org/content/dam/cedars-sinai/patients/spiritual-care/documents/jehovahs-witnesses-advanced-health-directive.pdf[1] https://www.cedars-sinai.org/content/dam/cedars-sinai/patients/spiritual-care/documents/jehovahs-witnesses-advanced-health-directive.pdf

Two years ago today I was sitting in a hospital room shortly after being told told my son's chances of surviving were zero. Three days earlier I didn't even know he was sick. My son's name is Ryan and he was 34 years old. He worked in heating and air conditioning and was working in the motion picture industry. He had moved some 200 miles away from me when he got his dream job at Warner Brothers Studio.I saw him as much as I could mostly on holidays always on Christmas and Mother's Day and whenever he could make it to town. I knew he drank (but so does most everyone I know). However, I had no idea how much he drank. It seems he must have hidden it from me.Anyway, on February 19th 2016, I received a phone call from my son's girlfriend. She informed me that Ryan had become jaundiced and she was taking him to the hospital. I drove the 200 mile in record time to be by his side. The first day was mainly tests and he was in a “regular” room. The doctor who attended him seemed somewhat cavalier when he told Ryan he had the liver of an old man. He also informed him of the liver's resilience and told him his recovery was totally up to him. He basically gave him a 50-50 chance of surviving . We did everything we could do to get him to eat and drink but he wasn't having any of it. His liver was huge and was pressing on his colon . Besides the jaundice, his biggest complaint was he could not have a bowel movement.I slept there with him the first night and there was not much sleeping. He started throwing up blood and I held his hand as I repeatedly wiped his mouth. I knew this could not be good. The following day was filled with more tests. I do not know what the doctor told Ryan one-on-one. Sometime during the third day he was moved into the critical care unit. His liver had stopped producing vitamin K which is a blood clotting agent. This meant they were unable to poke him or prod him any more as his bleeding could not be stopped. He became less and less responsive and at that point the doctor called me on the phone in the hospital. He was not straightforward and finally I had to come right out and ask what he was telling me? What are my son's chances of surviving this? At this point he responded with one word “ZERO”. I remember falling to the floor. I also remember the doctor stating that since my son had no Advanced Health Directive drawn up and I was his next of kin, I would need to make the decision as to whether or not to resuscitate him if his heart stopped beating. I also had to make the decision to disconnect him from the machine which was now keeping his organs functioning. This decision also included the ability to administer morphine to him. I had a lot to think about.My husband, Ryan's father, had passed away when Ryan was 4. This was a decision I had to make on my own. I called for a priest to baptize Ryan and to give him the final blessing. Ryan was still somewhat coherent at this point. I had to ask him if something happened to him whether he wanted to be buried or cremated . Could you ever imagine having this conversation with your child ? When I told him I loved him he could respond “love you too.” The priest asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he was able to reply yes. For the next day and a half I sat next to my son and held his hand and watched him slowly die. I called all of his friends and family and everyone rushed to be by his side. The room was full. At one point Ryan abruptly sat up and looked around the room. Up until that point he had not been responding. He looked around the room and smiled and laid back down and closed his eyes.Shortly after, the doctor came and disconnected the machines and administered the morphine. It seemed like time stood still. Listening to the machines that were monitoring his heart, beep..beep…beep.His heart became weaker and weaker until finally the machine showed a flat line. My baby was dead.For me, these were five days filled with horror. After he passed, I dressed his naked body.Two years later I am still severely traumatized from this. I have been diagnosed with PTSD and have been in multiple types of therapy. Nothing seems to work. I fear I will be traumatized by this for the rest of my life.