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Instructions and Help about utah directive printable form

Welcome to the Selling Law YouTube channel, where we provide Utah-specific information about estate planning, probate, and asset protection. In Utah, almost every estate pl anuses two standard forms, in addition to the planning documents such as a Will or Trust. Each of these forms names a person that can make decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated due to an injury or illness. One form is called a Power of Attorney, and designates someone to manage your financial affairs when you are not capable of managing them yourself. We will discuss Powers of Attorney in another video. The second form, which we are discussing today, is called an Advance Health Care Directive. Instead of appointing an agent to manage your finances, this form allows you to appoint an agent to make your healthcare decisions. Sometimes, this form is referred to as a Living Will or Healthcare Power of Attorney. The Utah State Legislature decided that advance Health Care Directive was so important that it standardized it to make it easier to use and define the agent s powers. What you see here is the beginning of the Utah Advance Health Care Directive form. As you can see, it's divided into four parts. Part I appoints a health care decisionmakingagent in the event that you cannot make healthcare decisions for yourself, or if you are physically unable to make your wishes known. Part II allows you to make a written statement about your wishes. Part III gives you instructions regarding revocation or alteration of the form. And finally, part IV tells you how to make sure your form has a binding legal effect. Choosing an agent in Part I is by far the most important part of the form. In my conversations with healthcare workers in Utah, the consensus is that a hospital or healthcare facility will not make any important decisions based on your written healthcare wishes. However, they will honor the appointment of your agent and defer to the agent s judgment if needed. The written healthcare preferences, other than the agent s appointment, only come under consideration if there is a dispute between family members that goes to court. Therefore, the appointment of an agent is the single most important part of this form. If you do not fill out this form, the order in which an attending healthcare facility will look for someone to make decisions on your behalf is as follows: Spouse, Child, Parent, Sibling, Grandchild, Grandparent. If you do not like that order, then the agent designation is especially important. You must keep this agent information up-to-date, ASA facility with the document on file will look to the form first to contact family members. The form allows you to choose an alternate agent, in case your first agent is unable or unwilling to serve as your agent. Many people will choose a spouse as a primary agent, then choose an alternate agent in case they and their spouse are in an accident together. As you can see here, the agent s authority is extensive and...