Mark Living Will Template Made Easy

Mark living will template

hi everyone this is rachel wilson from nest estate planning and today i want to talk a little bit about advanced healthcare directives also known as living wills so an advanced healthcare directive is a document that states what sort of medical intervention or what sort of medical care you would want if something was to happen to you and it also appoints an agent for you so that they can make health care decisions if you are unable to tell us what you want so each state has their own advanced health care directive the georgia advanced health care directive is online it's free it doesn't cost you anything print it out follow the instructions sign it in front of witnesses and you're done um each state has their own however my favorite one is five wishes and so i want to talk a little bit today about five wishes and what these five wishes are first of all uh five wishes is one option you you can you can do the state form or you can do the five wishes but the reason i like five wishes is because it's more comprehensive and also because it's valid in 42 states and the district of columbia it's valid in all the states around georgia except for alabama so this is great if you if you like to travel and maybe you have a home somewhere else or family somewhere else this would be a good option for you okay so let's get into what the five wishes are the first wish is the person that i want to make health care decisions for me if i am unable to voice my opinion so the person i want to make health care decisions for me when i cannot make them for myself so here's where you appoint the first healthcare agent and here's where you can appoint a backup and this gives advice on how to choose the person who would be a good fit for the healthcare agent for you another thing it does is is it allows you to cross out or add anything you'd like things that you want your healthcare agent to be able to do the second wish is the wish for the kind of medical treatment i want or don't want and you can think of this as do you want to be on a respirator do you want to be intubated do you want to do not resuscitate what sort of care would you want and what would you not want if you were unable to tell us there's a place for you to put what life support means to me um what you want your caregiver to keep in mind um and and what situation what things you would want in different situations if you were close to death if you had permanent or severe brain damage you were not expected to recover how should your doctors treat you what decision should your healthcare agent make for you if you're in a coma not expected to wake up there's a there's check marks for all this if you if you know what you want you can check off what you want or you can add it at the bottom if you don't know what you want you can leave those things blank now those first two wishes are the most important wishes for an advanced care directive to tell us what sort of medical treatment you would want or not want and who your agent for health care should be five wishes goes a little further so we're going to go on to wish three and that is the wish for how comfortable i want to be if you've ever had a family member in hospice you will know that this is so important these little things really do make a lot of difference at the end of life so some of the options you have are i do not want to be in pain i want my doctor to give me enough medicine to relieve my pain even if that means i will be drowsy or sleep more than i would otherwise um i wish to have warm baths often i wish to have religious readings and while love poems read aloud when i am near death i wish to have personal care like shaving nail clipping hair brushing and teeth brushing as long as they do not cause me pain or discomfort i wish to have my favorite music played when possible until my time of death all really important things that you would often see in hospice care but good reminders for those of us who are caring for someone who is passing or who is very seriously ill that these things really do matter and so you can put here what is important to you the fourth wish is my wish for how i want people to treat me and you can cross at anything you don't agree with or add some things if you'd like you can say i wish to have my hand held and to be talked to when possible even if i don't seem to respond i wish to have the members of my faith community told that i'm sick and ask to pray for me and visit me i wish to have pictures of my loved ones in my room near my bed i wish to be cared for with kindness and cheerfulness not sadness or i want to die in my home if that can be done also really important things and then wish number five is my wish for what i want my loved ones to know and this is a great one this is this is your legacy you could say you can circle the ones that you like or um you can cross that ones you don't like you can add things some of them include i wish for all of my family members to make peace with each other before my death if they can i wish them to think of me as i was before i became seriously ill i wish for my friends and family to look at my dying as a time of personal growth for everyone including me this will help me leave a mini live a meaningful life in my final days uh you can also put your wishes for burial or cremation or your memorial service your funeral wishes all of this can be added here if you want to keep it all in one place it's a great place to put it you can even put special wishes as far as if you want to be an organ donor or other designated charities that you would like to receive memorial contributions at your passing this is a great place to put all those in wish five and after you filled it out you want to sign it in front of two witnesses so this is where you sign and this is where your two witnesses sign you need to sign it in front of these two witnesses and then there's a place at the bottom where you can get it notarized it does not have to be notarized in georgia but it does in south carolina north carolina and a few other states so i like to get them notarized i'm a notary i'm happy to act as your notary if you'll just let me know i can come and be your notary and you'll have your signature your two witnesses and then i can notarize it for you so after you've got it notarized what do you do well here's a little wallet card at the bottom you fill it out tell who your primary care physician is says that you have five wishes and that you wish for the five wishes document to be consulted and that your health care agent is the particular person that you nominated and you want to make a copy of this you want to keep this card in your wallet you want to give a copy of this to your your primary physician um you want to give a copy to your healthcare agent maybe you want to keep it with your important files so this is this is absolutely indispensable so much so that i ordered 500 of them normally they're about five bucks online but i ordered 500 of them and i put my information on the back and i have been handing these things out like candy because it's so important some of you may remember terry chavo or elaine esposito or some of these other cases where where individuals were kept on life support for 10 15 years and the families fought over what they would have wanted or what they would not have wanted what what does life support mean to you and and who should make those decisions and this is the document where you put it out of all those cases this is the document that that we have settled on for how to get those wishes across to the medical staff and to the authorities that this is what you'd want so you can do the state version the the georgia advanced healthcare directive that's available for free online or you can do a five wishes and if you have any questions about filling out a five wishes please give me a call it's 912-405 nest or you can reach me through my website at nest estate planning dot com that's n-e-s-t e-s-t-a-t-e-p-l-a-n-n ing.com thanks so much for watching