Do I Need More Than One Advance Directive?

When you are getting ready to work with an Oak Park estate planning attorney to make an estate plan, you should be thinking about a wide range of document types and estate planning tools that may be relevant to you. For most people, advance directives fall into this category — they are an important part of the estate planning process. Yet unlike wills or trusts — which most people have heard of, even if they do not have a will themselves or have any personal connection to a trust — many people do not know about advance directives or what they do. As such, when you first hear about advance directives, you might be wondering: do I need to have one, and do I need more than one?

For most people, it is important not only to have at least one advance directive but to have multiple advance directives. Indeed, advance directives are important regardless of your current health because they can give you peace of mind concerning your health care no matter what unexpected events might occur. Our Oak Park estate planning attorneys can tell you more.

What are Advance Directives?

In order to understand why you likely need more than one advance directive as part of your estate plan, it is important to understand what advance directives are and why they are important. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, “an advance directive is a written statement you prepare that expresses how you want medical decisions made in the future should you not be able to make them yourself.”

To be clear, advance directives are a way for you to make decisions about your health care in advance in the event that you cannot make such decisions in the future due to incapacity.

Types of Advance Directives Available in Illinois

Different states have different types of advance directives, and sometimes, these advance directives do the same work but have different names in different states. Some states have only two advance directives as options, while some have three or four. Accordingly, it is critical to understand the specific types of advance directives in Illinois, what they are called, and what function they serve. The Illinois Department of Public Health identifies the following four (4) types of advance directives that a person can make in Illinois:

Health care power of attorney (allows you to name a person — an “agent” — to make health care decisions for you if you become incapacitated);
Living will (allows you to clarify whether or not you want “death-delaying procedures” when you have a terminal illness and cannot make your wishes known);
Mental health treatment preference declaration (allows you to say whether or not you want to receive electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) or psychotropic medicine for a mental illness in situations where you are incapacitated and cannot make this decision yourself); and
Practitioner orders for life-sustaining treatment, or POLST (allows you to say whether or not you want to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if your heart stops or your breathing stops, and whether or not you want life-sustaining treatment) .

Illinois has specific forms available for each type of advance directive. Most people should have at least one of these advance directives, but many should have more than one. You should discuss your circumstances with your attorney and with your loved ones.

Contact an Estate Planning Lawyer in Oak Park

Do you have questions about advance directives or other aspects of estate planning? Our Oak Park estate planning lawyers are here to assist you. Contact the Emerson Law Firm to learn more about how we can help.



See Related Blog Posts:

Unmarried Couples and Estate Planning

When to Make a Will

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