Advance directive form

What the form finder shows

If you land in the hospital and can't speak, someone has to talk to your doctors, and your wishes have to be on paper. With no spouse or kids, both have to be set down ahead of time. Pick your state and the finder shows its official advance directive form, the law it's in, whether it's one form or two (a living will and a health care power of attorney), and who must be in the room when you sign. It also lists who can't witness, who can't be your agent, whether Five Wishes works there by its publisher's account, the state registry and its fee, and whether a directive signed in another state counts.

Then, if you like, it builds a checklist: your agent, a backup, who'll witness, the registry step, and who keeps copies. Every name is optional, and anything you skip prints as a line to fill in by hand.

How to use it

This organizes the rules, it isn't legal or medical advice. A lawyer licensed in your state can confirm the form and the signing fit your case, and your state's official code has the final word.

One form or two

"Advance directive" is the umbrella name. Some states print one combined form: California's Advance Health Care Directive names your agent in Part 1 and gives your instructions in Part 2, and Georgia's covers an agent, your treatment preferences and a guardian nomination. Texas, Florida, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina use a separate living will and agent form. New York and Michigan have only an agent form in their statutes. The living will vs directive guide sorts out the names.

Most state forms are optional. New Hampshire, Oregon, Alabama and South Carolina ask for substantially the state's own form.

Who can't witness when you have no family

Rules that bar relatives from witnessing cost you nothing when you have none. The limits that bite are the bans on your agent, on your heirs or will beneficiaries (often the friends or charity you named), and on health care or facility staff. That last one matters most if you sign in a hospital or nursing home. Where your state offers a notary instead of witnesses, that usually solves it. Utah, Delaware and Illinois (for the power of attorney) need just one witness, and Arizona one witness or a notary.

Who can be your agent has its own limits, usually your own doctor and the staff where you live. See agent rules by state.

Does Five Wishes work in my state?

Five Wishes is an advance directive document published by Aging with Dignity. No state law we read names it. Its publisher says it meets the legal requirements in DC and most states. In New Hampshire, Kansas, Ohio and Texas you may need an extra step, and in North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Missouri it must be notarized. That's the publisher's claim, not a ruling by any state, and older copies listed more states. The finder shows the claim for your state, labeled as the publisher's.

Registries and moving

A few states keep a registry where your directive can be found. California and North Carolina charge $10, Idaho up to $10, and West Virginia's is free. We found none in most states, so it matters who holds a copy. A directive signed in another state is honored by statute in every state where we read the rule, among them California, Florida, Texas, Minnesota and North Carolina. Texas still won't carry out care its own law forbids.

In Canada

Switch the finder to Canada for the 10 provinces and 3 territories. The documents go by their own names: a power of attorney for personal care in Ontario, a representation agreement in British Columbia, a personal directive in Alberta, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories, and a protection mandate in Québec. Witness rules run from none in Manitoba, if you sign it yourself, to two in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, and no province requires a lawyer or notary. If you name no one, most use a ranked list of relatives set in law. British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Yukon let a close friend act, and in several provinces the public guardian or trustee is the last resort. By a secondary source's account, Nunavut has no directive law at all.

Where the facts come from

We read each state's law on its own code site or agency page where we could, in October 2026. Where a site blocked us, we read a mirror copy of the code, and the finder flags that state. Where we saw only a search summary, the finder says "Not confirmed: check your state's official site" and gives no official link. For Canada, a province we couldn't read on a government site is flagged "Secondary source only." Delaware (2025) and Utah (2026) moved to a new uniform law, so older guides for those two states are out of date.

Read next

• Living will: what it covers when no one can speak for you.
• Medical power of attorney: what it does and how to sign it.
• medical power of attorney form: only the document that names your agent, under your state's name for it.
• living will form: only the document that holds your treatment wishes, under your state's name for it.
• Living will template: write your treatment wishes step by step before you fill in the official form.
• Health care proxy with no family or friends: who to name.
• Living will vs directive: is one part of the other?

Other free tools

• Power of attorney form: the money side, your state's official financial form.
• Emergency contact card: a wallet card that names your health care agent.
• Estate planning checklist: where an advance directive fits with your will.

This finder isn't legal or medical advice and doesn't make an advance directive for you. Laws change, so check your state's official code before you sign.