Quickly create your Illinois 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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Do you want to specify someone who can make financial decisions for you if you are unavailable or incapacitated?
Do you want someone to handle your health care decisions if you are unable?
Do you want to specify someone who can make financial decisions for you if you are unavailable or incapacitated?
Do you want to specify someone who can make financial decisions for you if you are unavailable or incapacitated?
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a FindLaw Attorney
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Estate Planning Package
For One Person
- Last will and testament
- Health care directive & living will
- Financial power of attorney
- Free HIPAA release form
- A comprehensive plan — for less
- Free changes and revisions for one full year after purchase
Financial Power of Attorney
For One Person
- Try our easy step-by-step guide
- Create your state-specific documents before you buy
- Only purchase if you are satisfied with your estate planning documents
- 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
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
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
Estate Planning Package
For Two People
- Two wills, health care directives & living wills, and financial powers of attorney
- Two free HIPAA release forms
- You and your loved one create your own estate plans tailored to your individual needs
- Attorney-approved documents customized to your state’s laws
- Free changes and revisions for one full year after purchase
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 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
Reliable Illinois Health Care Directives and Living Wills from anywhere
If you are ever diagnosed with a terminal condition and cannot communicate, your loved ones and medical staff might struggle to decide which treatments to administer and which to withhold on your behalf. With a health care directive and living will, you can give clear instructions on your treatment choices in the event that you become unable to make health care decisions for yourself. This can help to prevent strife among family members and empowers you to accept or refuse future medical care as you see fit.
FindLaw provides everything you need:
- 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
Illinois Health Care Directive and Living Will Options to Suit You
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 Validate My Illinois Health Care Directive and Living Will?
Follow these steps:
Make decisions on your medical treatments.
A health care directive and living will is a legal document that allows you to make decisions about your potential medical treatments in advance. It is also known as a type of advance directive.
In your health care directive and living will, you will need to specify whether you would choose the administration or withdrawal of death-delaying procedures in the event that you were suffering from a terminal, incurable condition. This would include any procedures that simply serve to prolong the natural dying process, such as artificial hydration, artificial nutrition, breathing tubes, and others. Of course, these are difficult medical decisions, and can be unpleasant to consider. If you struggle with your choices, it may help to talk them over with loved ones and a trusted doctor.
Sign your health care directive and living will.
According to the Illinois Living Will Act, you need to sign your health care directive and living will or direct someone to sign it for you. You should have two adult witnesses present at the time of signing who should also sign.
Distribute your health care directive and living will.
After signing your document, you need to make sure to provide your close family members with a copy. You should also give your health care directive and living will to your healthcare providers. If you named an agent through a healthcare power of attorney, be sure to provide your agent with a copy too.
As a contingency plan, you may want to consider storing your document in an online living will registry. These online databases allow your health care providers to access your health care directive and living will in case of an emergency medical situation at any time day or night.
Update your health care directive and living will.
You should review your health care directive and living will from time to time to make sure it continues to accurately reflect your medical preferences. You should review it when you go through significant life changes too.
Major life events that might make you reconsider your estate plan would include a new diagnosis, a divorce, an interstate move, or a simple change of heart. If you purchase a health care directive and living will through FindLaw, you can relax knowing that you can make unlimited updates to your document for a full 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 Illinois healthcare directive & living will? It’s free to start.
Create My FormIllinois Health Care Directive and Living Will FAQs
A last will and testament (a “will”) is the primary estate planning document. You can use a will to provide for the distribution of your assets after your death. If you have minor children, you can name guardians for them in your will.
Unlike a will, a living will is only valid during your lifetime. You can use a living will to describe your health care wishes during your lifetime, but not to distribute your assets after your death. A comprehensive estate plan may include both a will and a health care directive and living will to cover both asset distribution and health care decisions.
Your document must meet a few basic requirements to be considered legally valid in Illinois:
- Mental Capacity: You must be of sound mind when you sign your health care directive and living will
- Writing: Your document must be in writing, either in hard copy or electronic form
- Signature: you must sign your health care directive and living will or direct someone to sign your name for you
- Witnesses: There must be two adult witnesses present when you sign your document. They should then sign the document too.
- Age: You must be at least 18 years old or an emancipated person
Note that updates to Illinois law now make it possible to create a legally valid electronic health care directive and living will. But you still need to be careful to comply with the rules on signatures and witnessing to ensure that you have created a valid legal document. It is a good idea to create a physical copy of your document on paper and sign it in front of two witnesses. This creates a backup in case any medical providers or loved ones have trouble accessing an electronic copy.
Yes, a health care directive and living will from another state is valid in Illinois if it complies with the laws of the state where it was created or with Illinois’ laws.
Although an out-of-state health care directive and living will may be valid in Illinois, it’s a good idea to update your estate plan when you complete an interstate move. This will help to ensure that your will, health care directive and living will, and other estate planning documents comply with state laws and reflect your current preferences. You can create a living will that’s tailored to Illinois law with FindLaw for only $35 from any location that is convenient to you.
Health care directive and living wills in Illinois only become effective in the event that you are diagnosed with a terminal medical condition. This is defined as an irreversible condition that will lead to imminent death unless health care staff apply artificial life-sustaining procedures.
In other words, a health care directive and living will does not become operative if you are suffering with a condition that has a good prognosis of recovery. Your medical providers should only act on the instructions in your health care directive and living will if you are facing a terminal prognosis.
Under Illinois law, you can revoke your health care directive and living will in several ways. To perform a revocation, you may:
- Tear up, burn, or otherwise physically destroy the document.
- Verbally declare your intention to revoke your health care directive and living will in the presence of an adult witness.
- Create a written revocation of your health care directive and living will. You must sign and date this revocation or direct someone to do so on your behalf.
- For an electronic document, delete the health care directive and living will with the intention to revoke.
Although the law technically permits a verbal revocation, you should only do so if you have no other option. It is much easier to cast doubt on the authenticity of a spoken declaration than a written one. A verbal revocation also requires your adult witness to create a signed and dated record of the revocation. If you must revoke verbally, make sure to choose a witness who you trust to create the proper written record.
If you purchase your health care directive and living will through FindLaw, you can make unlimited changes for a year after purchase. These changes serve as effective revocations to your previous living wills. Whenever you revoke your health care directive and living will or create a new one, you should inform your loved ones and health care providers of this fact. If you stored your document with a living will registry, you should make sure to contact them to remove or replace the revoked document.
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