Advance Health Care Directives

• Checklist - 7 Important Instructions to Include in a Health Care Directive

  Know the 7 crucial medical-care instructions your parents should put in their advance health care directives.

• Article - Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills: A Step-by-Step Guide

  How to set up a living will or health care directive. How to figure out what your parent wants and make sure it's reflected in the documents.

• Article - Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills: A Beginner's Guide

  A living will or advance health care directive lets medical providers know a person's preferences when they're unable to do so independently.

• Article - Estate Planning Basics

  Estate planning manages money and property during life and passes it to survivors after death. Know what the basic estate planning documents can do.

• Checklist - 5 Legal Documents You Need for Your Parents

  These documents will ensure that you can assist your...

Blog Posts

• Blog Post - End-of-Life Financial Lessons Learned the Hard Way

  Francine Lipman, who teaches tax law, discovered that even she was ill-equipped to prepare herself for the financial realities of her mother's death.

• Blog Post - My mother has asked not to be resuscitated if she has a medical crisis, but my siblings disagree on what constitutes a medical crisis.

  Before she showed signs of dementia, my mother decided...

Questions & Answers

• Question - How can I obtain the forms required for a free living will or advance directive?

  Advance directive forms are fairly easy to come by; it's completing them that can be the tricky part.

• Question - Can you provide me with a list of "end of life" questions to address with my family?

  A comprehensive list for end of life questions will be appearing soon; in the meantime, this site can help provide some structure for your discussions.

• Question - How can I obtain my deceased mother's medical records?

  Unanswered. Can you help?

• Question - How can I ensure that my domestic partner will be empowered to handle my medical care and financial decisions?

  To be sure your family is clear about your domestic partner's role in handling your property and medical care, reinforce those wishes now.

• Question - Are living trusts and living wills the same?

  When it comes to living wills and living trusts, only the names are similar. One concerns itself with controlling medical care; the other, passing title to property.

Tips & Reflections

• Tip - Discussing an Advance Health Care Directive With Your Parent

  It's never too soon to prepare an advance health care...

• Tip - A Do-It-Yourself Advance Directive

  If your parents have been putting off preparing a living...

• Tip - Put It on a Card

  Legal documents, such as an advance healthcare directive...

• Tip - One Health Care Directive Is Enough

  Common sense might prompt you to think that if your...