Advance Directives & Living Wills in South Florida

Advance Directives Tailored to Your Family & Medical Wishes

An advance directive records your medical wishes for a time when you can’t make or communicate health care decisions. It can give your family and health care providers guidance during a medical crisis rather than leaving important choices unclear.

At The Gaston Law Firm, P.A., we draft advance directives as part of estate planning tailored to your family dynamics and long-term goals. A living will and health care surrogate designation address different parts of advance-care planning, and each document should reflect the decisions you want made on your behalf.

Living Wills & Health Care Surrogate Designations

A living will provides instructions about life-prolonging procedures if you have a terminal condition, an end-stage condition, or are in a persistent vegetative state. Life-prolonging procedures are medical treatments that sustain or extend life in these circumstances.

A health care surrogate designation names someone who may make health care decisions if you become incapacitated, meaning unable to make or communicate those decisions yourself. Your surrogate should understand your values, be prepared to speak with medical providers, and know where to locate your documents.

These documents serve distinct purposes:

• Living Will: States your preferences concerning life-prolonging procedures.
• Health Care Surrogate Designation: Identifies the person authorized to make health care decisions during incapacity.
• Advance Directive: May include a living will, a health care surrogate designation, or an anatomical gift made pursuant to Florida’s anatomical gift law.

Advance Directives Within Your Estate Plan

Medical decision-making documents don’t control property distribution or give someone authority over financial matters. Those concerns may call for other estate-planning documents, including wills, trusts, and powers of attorney. We can help you consider how these documents fit together without treating a health care directive as a substitute for the rest of your plan.

For mixed-status families, estate planning can involve differing citizenship statuses and related legal considerations. We draw on our immigration and estate-planning experience when a family’s plan must account for considerations in both areas of law.

Personalized Guidance for Medical Wishes

Advance-care planning involves personal decisions about treatment, communication, and the person you trust to speak for you. We maintain open communication as we explain how living wills and health care surrogate designations work, discuss whom you trust to speak for you, and tailor the documents to your circumstances.