Quickly create your California Health Care Directive and Living Will
You can complete FindLaw’s attorney-created health care directive and living will forms in less than an hour at home. Our guided process takes you through a few easy steps and includes a free HIPAA release form. You’ll be able to download, print and sign your documents in no time.

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Estate Planning Package
For One Person
- Last will and testament
- Health care directive & living will
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Financial Power of Attorney
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Health Care Directive & Living Will
For One Person
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your health care directive and living will before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create a document that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free HIPAA release form
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
Last Will and Testament
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- Create a last will and testament that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
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Estate Planning Package
For Two People
- Two wills, health care directives & living wills, and financial powers of attorney
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- Attorney-approved documents customized to your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions for one full year after purchase
Financial Power of Attorney
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- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your state-specific, attorney-approved documents before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create an attorney-approved power of attorney that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
Health Care Directive & Living Will
For Two People
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your state-specific, attorney-approved documents before you buy.
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create an attorney-approved document that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free HIPAA release form
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
Last Will and Testament
For Two People
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your state-specific, attorney-approved documents before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create two wills customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions to your wills for a full year after purchase
Health Care Directive & Living Will + Financial Power of Attorney
For One Person
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your health care directive and living will before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create a document that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free HIPAA release form
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
- Create your state-specific documents before you buy
- Create a power of attorney that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
Last Will and Testament + Financial Power of Attorney
For One Person
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your documents before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create a last will and testament that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions to your will for a full year after purchase
- Create your state-specific documents before you buy
- Create a power of attorney that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
Last Will and Testament + Health Care Directive & Living Will
For One Person
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your documents before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create a last will and testament that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions to your will for a full year after purchase
- Create your health care directive and living will before you buy
- Create a document that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free HIPAA release form
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
Health Care Directive & Living Will + Financial Power of Attorney
For Two People
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your state-specific, attorney-approved documents before you buy.
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create an attorney-approved document that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free HIPAA release form
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
- Create your state-specific, attorney-approved documents before you buy
- Create an attorney-approved power of attorney that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
Last Will and Testament + Financial Power of Attorney
For Two People
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your state-specific, attorney-approved documents before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create two wills customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions to your wills for a full year after purchase
- Create an attorney-approved power of attorney that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
Last Will and Testament + Health Care Directive & Living Will
For Two People
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your state-specific, attorney-approved documents before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- Create two wills customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions to your wills for a full year after purchase
- Create your state-specific, attorney-approved documents before you buy.
- Create an attorney-approved document that’s customized to your wishes and your state’s laws
- Free HIPAA release form
- Free changes and revisions to your document for a full year after purchase
Attorney-approved California Health Care Directives and Living Wills
If you ever face a terminal medical condition and become unable to communicate your own medical decisions, your family and medical providers may not know which treatments you would want to request or refuse. If you have strong feelings about end-of-life treatment, or simply want to spare your loved ones from making these difficult decisions for you, you should create a health care directive and living will. A health care directive and living will empowers you to make medical choices in advance.
Click on the links below to jump down the page:
- Learn about your options for a DIY health care directive and living will
- Use the guided process to create a personalized health care directive and living will
- Find out how to make your health care directive and living will valid
- Find answers to common questions about health care directives and living wills
California Health Care Directive and Living Will Options to Suit Your Needs
Health Care Directive & Living Will
For One Person
A do-it-yourself health care directive & living will that’s easy to personalize.
BEST VALUE
Estate Planning Package
For one person
All the forms you need to create a personal estate plan
How It Works
Create your health care directive & living will in under an hour.
Answer Some Questions
Decide who will be your health care agent/proxy and which medical treatments you would request or refuse.
Create an Account
Creating an account is easy, quick, and secure. Save your information as you go and return when you have time.
Complete Your Document
Once you answer the relevant questions, we do the hard part and create your unique document.
Print, Sign & Make It Legal
Print and sign your document according to the instructions. Give a copy to your doctors and agent/proxy.
What’s Next To Make My California Health Care Directive and Living Will Valid?
Validate your health care directive and living will by following these steps.
Make decisions about your medical treatment.
A health care directive and living will is a type of legal document called an “advance health care directive” (or “advance directive“). You can use it to specify which medical treatments you would accept and which you would refuse if you become unable to make your health care decisions for yourself. You can also make your wishes about organ donation known. As part of your health care directive and living will, you need to consider whether you would prefer the administration or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment that only serves to prolong natural death. If you have a difficult time making this decision, it may be helpful to talk it over with your loved ones and a trusted doctor.
Choose your health care agent.
Under California’s Health Care Decisions Law, you have the right to nominate someone as your health care agent. They can make medical decisions for you if you ever become medically incapacitated. You can choose this person by executing a durable power of attorney for health care (a “POA”). Both a health care directive and living will, and Power of attorneys for health care are types of advance directives.
You should select a health care agent who is familiar with your health care preferences, and your opinions on end-of-life care. You should also talk to them to make sure that they are willing to carry out the terms of your health care directive and living will. Many people choose a close friend, spouse, or other close family member for this role.
Sign your advance directives.
You should sign and date your advance directives (your health care directive and living will and POA) or direct another adult to do so for you. There should either be two adult witnesses present when you sign, or you should acknowledge your signature to a notary public.
If you choose to have witnesses sign your advance directives, you should be aware of the following legal restrictions. The witnesses must sign your advance directives after watching you sign. They must also swear to a legal statement that is available in the California statutes.
The following individuals may not act as witnesses:
- Your health care provider or their employee
- Your health care agent
- An operator or employee of a community or residential care facility
Further, one of your witnesses must be someone who is not related to you and does not stand to inherit from you. That witness must sign a statement verifying that fact.
Note that if you are a patient in a skilled nursing facility, there are special requirements for your health care directive and living will. You will need to have a patient advocate or ombudsman witness your health care directive and living will even if you have it notarized.
Distribute and store your health care directive and living will.
After signing your document, you need to make sure it gets into the right hands. Most importantly, you should make sure to provide your health care agent with a copy of your health care directive and living will. This will help them to understand your wishes for health care and provides them with a document they can reference if needed.
Next, be sure to supply your health care providers with copies of your health care directive and living will that they can enter into your medical record. Your close loved ones should have a copy too in case they accompany you during a medical emergency.
Finally, you may want to consider storing your health care directive and living will in California’s advance health care directive registry. This will allow your medical providers and caretakers to request access to your document if necessary. The health care registry also allows you to make a note of the location of your advance directive. If you prefer, you can do this instead of providing them with the actual document.
Update your health care directive and living will.
Once your health care directive and living will is complete, it’s important to review it at least every few years to make sure that it continues to reflect your preferences. If you have gone through any major life changes, you may want to review your estate planning documents (including your health care directive and living will) sooner.
The type of significant life events that may cause you to rethink your health care directive and living will include:
- A new diagnosis
- Divorce
- death of a loved one
- an interstate move
If these or other changes occur in your life, you may need to replace your health care agent or update your documents to comply with the laws of your new state of residence. You can rest assured that if you purchase a health care directive and living will through FindLaw, you can make unlimited updates for a year after purchase.

You May Want to Speak With a Lawyer if:
- Your family disagrees with your medical choices
- You don’t know who to appoint as your agent
- You have questions about life prolonging measures
- You want legal review of your completed document
Ready to get started on Your California healthcare directive & living will? It’s free to start.
Create My FormCalifornia Health Care Directive and Living Will FAQs
Under California law, there are certain basic rules that you must follow to create a valid health care directive and living will:
- You must be an adult
- You must have the mental capacity to give health care instructions
- You must sign and date the document
- There should be two witnesses present when you sign, or you should acknowledge your signature to a notary public.
The restrictions on witness choices are covered in more detail in the steps above. Generally, your health care agent and anyone who is involved with your health care may not witness your health care directive and living will. Further, one of the witnesses must sign a statement acknowledging that they are not related to you and will not inherit from you.
Finally, if you are a patient in a skilled nursing facility, California law requires that a patient advocate or ombudsman must sign your health care directive and living will as a witness. This is true even if your document is notarized.
Yes, an out-of-state advance directive is valid if it was created in accordance with the laws of that state or is in compliance with California laws. However, if you have recently completed a permanent move to California, it may be a good time to update your estate plan and make sure it complies with California law. You can create an attorney-approved California health care directive and living will through FindLaw for $35 without needing to visit an attorney’s office.
Yes. Through a durable health care power of attorney (a “POA”), you can name a health care agent. This person will make medical choices for you if you ever become incapacitated and unable to make them for yourself. According to California’s health care laws, your health care agent’s legal authority to make medical decisions for you would terminate if you recover the capacity to make decisions for yourself.
Your health care agent’s legal duty is to carry out the terms of your health care directive and living will and to make medical decisions that are in your best interest. When you choose someone for this role, you should make sure to discuss your treatment preferences with them. You should also talk to them to make sure that they are willing to take on this role. This person may need to be assertive to advocate for your health care wishes with medical staff and family members.
Technically, yes. California law permits electronic advance directives. But there are special rules associated with them. Just as with any advance directive, you must sign electronic versions. Further, your digital signature must comply with California’s digital signatures law or it must use technology approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
If you are not fully confident that the system you are using complies with these standards, it is a better idea to sign a health care directive and living will on a hard copy. With FindLaw, you can create a health care directive and living will to print and sign in about an hour.
A divorce does not revoke the directions in your health care directive and living will. But if you named your spouse as your health care agent, a divorce legally revokes this designation. If you should happen to remarry your former spouse, this would reinstate their designation as your health care agent.
If you have gone through a divorce, it is a good time to review your estate plan. This includes your advance directives. After a divorce, you may wish to add or remove beneficiaries from your will. Of course, you may also want to name a new health care agent if you had previously chosen your spouse for that role.
California’s health care laws allow you to revoke your health care directive and living will in any manner and at any time. An effective way to revoke a health care directive and living will is by creating a new one that explicitly revokes all prior documents. FindLaw can help you create a new health care directive and living will in about 30 minutes to an hour without even needing to leave the comfort of home.
If you named a health care agent through a POA, you can only revoke this designation through another signed writing or by notifying your supervising health care provider.
Whether you simply revoke your advance directives or create new ones, you should make sure to inform the right people of this change. Your health care agent should know when they have been replaced, first of all. You should then let your loved ones and health care providers know that you have changed your advance directives. This will ensure that they have your most current preferences at hand if they should need to use them. Finally, if you stored your advance directives with California’s advance health care directive registry, you should contact them to update your records.
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