Answers to Frequently Asked Living Will and Advance Healthcare Directive Questions
Standard Legal’s Power of Attorney package does not contain ANY health care language.
The Power of Attorney legal forms software title focuses instead on handling the business affairs of the maker, either on-going or for a set period of time, and is effective immediately upon execution.
Instead, you should review Standard Legal’s Living Will legal forms software offering.
A complete Living Will indeed does contain a number of different documents: an Advanced Healthcare Directive document, Durable Property Power of Attorney documents, a HIPAA Medical Records Release Authorization form, the Notice of Final Disposition document, etc.
Sometimes these documents are provided separately, sometimes they are folded into one long document.
These two documents are used for decidedly different purposes all together. A Power of Attorney for Healthcare (often called an ‘Advanced Healthcare Directive’ or a ‘Living Will’) covers a separate series of issues versus a Durable Power of Attorney.
If the changes to a Last Will and Testament or a Living Trust are significant, a person can create new documents to take the place of the existing documents. But a Will and Trust must be handled differently.
The laws of each state may effect who is appointed with Power of Attorney.
Generally, spouses make decisions for an incapacitated adult.
If one is not married, state law may permit the children of that person to make medical decisions, assuming that all of the children agree on the care to be provided.
Generally, there is no requirement that Will or Living Will documents must be re-drawn when a person moves from one state to another, provided that the original document meets even the basic requirements of each state\’s laws. If there is any doubt regarding the validity of your documents, we suggest you create new ones, given … Read more
Let’s use an example of a husband and wife who do not “mix finances”. The wife owns the house solely in her name, and the husband has a business solely in his name with debts both personal and under the business. They carefully keep completely separate bank accounts, credit card accounts, etc.
Generally, a Last Will and Testament outlines the distribution of a person’s assets upon his or her death, while a Living Will defines the type of health care a person wishes to receive if incapacitated and unable to make such decisions directly.
In most instances, the person who is creating either one of these documents should