Five Main Types of Advance Medical Directives: An Overview (Pt. 3)

April 5, 2015 Posted In Estate Planning,Medical Directives,Powers of Attorney
by Colorado Estate Matters

Here’s the conclusion to our blog series Five Main Types of Advance Medical Directives: An Overview.

Final Type of Advance Medical Directive – Organ and Tissues Donation Declarations

When you are ready to develop advance medical directives or any estate planning documents, please call us and schedule a free estate planning consultation. We are skilled at creating the best solutions for our clients.

These directives can be included in living wills, stand-alone documents or even on drivers’ licenses. With these declarations as advance medical directives, people can:

• Specify who should receive certain organ donations
• List a preference for organ recipients
• Prevent their organs from being donated.

Advance Medical Directives: More Important Info

While we have highlighted the various types of advance medical directives available in Colorado, here is what else people should generally be aware of when it comes to these directives:

• Advance medical directives do NOT take away someone’s power to make his or her own health care decisions when that individual is able to do so; these directives only come into play when people cannot make or communicate these decisions.
• When someone becomes incapacitated without having an advance medical directive in place, the court will typically step in and appoint another person to be a guardian of the incapacitated individual. This can be problematic in the event that the court ends up appointing someone whom the incapacitated person would NOT want to have making medical decisions for them.
• While you can set up basic advance medical directives with online forms, if you choose to do this, you should be aware that you need to be sure to use Colorado-specific forms.  Secondly, that these basic directives may not cover all situations (so they may end up not be effective/useful in the future).
• Setting up advance medical directives is just one aspect of putting together a comprehensive estate plan.  Working with an experienced Denver estate planning attorney at Colorado Estate Matters, Ltd. can help you get all necessary estate planning issues resolved/put in place now so that you are fully protected later.

Call you Denver Estate Planning Attorney at Colorado Estate Matters, Ltd. for any estate planning questions.

Are you ready to develop advance medical directives? Or do you need help with any estate planning issues? If so, you can turn to a trusted estate planning lawyer at Colorado Estate Matters, Ltd. We provide a thoughtful, comprehensive approach to our clients’ estate planning, elder law and other legal needs.  We take pride in helping each of our clients and their families find the best solutions for them.

Our goal is to help our clients efficiently navigate the complexities of the law so they can develop effective, prudent solutions that will protect them, their assets and their families in the future.

Contact Us

We can discuss your estate planning needs and different options during our consultation. To schedule this meeting, call us at (303) 713-9147 or email us using the contact form at the top of this page.

From our offices in Denver, we serve clients throughout the southwest and southeast Metro Area, including (but not limited to) people in Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Castle Rock, Parker, Aurora, Greenwood Village, Englewood, Centennial, Wheat Ridge, Golden and Arvada.