Is my will able to be done and how much?

[TrustUser]

OP - i think you will definitely want to get both documents. each is important.

in california, the 2 functions are simply combined into 1 document. so when someone says "health care directive" to me, i think of both functions

and i think this is a much better way of doing it.

apparently the colorado health care directive only tells health care providers what you want, if you cant speak for yourself. an extremely important aspect of that is someone who will enforce that.

so imo, all the functions should be in 1 document. and then you name a health care attorney to enforce everything - that is one thing that california did correctly.

 

[Taxing Matters]

so imo, all the functions should be in 1 document. and then you name a health care attorney to enforce everything - that is one thing that california did correctly.

Yes, but Colorado does things differently, and in Colorado it is better to have the two separate.

 

[TrustUser]

i doubt if i could be convinced of that. i do not like a document that tells doctors what i want or dont want. but no one specified in that document to enforce those wishes. there are many things i dont like about california. this happens to be something that i do like better !!

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

i doubt if i could be convinced of that. i do not like a document that tells doctors what i want or dont want. but no one specified in that document to enforce those wishes. there are many things i dont like about california. this happens to be something that i do like better !!

What happens if the person that you have decided proxy is in the same accident you are in? Sure you could have several but I tend to hang out with the people I would trust to proxy for me and they tend to do the same stuff that I do that would get me in a position where I would need a proxy.

 

[Taxing Matters]

i doubt if i could be convinced of that. i do not like a document that tells doctors what i want or dont want. but no one specified in that document to enforce those wishes. there are many things i dont like about california. this happens to be something that i do like better !!

I didn't mean that Colorado's approach is necessarily better than California's; people can have different views on that. What I meant is that the way Colorado law works, it's better for Colorado residents to use the two separate documents rather than trying to combine them into one. Doing that does not diminish the ability to enforce the living will.

 

[TrustUser]

in answer to your first question, that is a problem, for sure. but it has nothing to do with our current discussion. although i am not too sure that is gonna be a problem for a lot of people.

personally, i have chosen family members (2 of my sisters) as my health care attorney and backup. and we dont live close enough that we would be doing a lot of things together.

i think more people choose family than they do friends, for this particular job. but i agree with you that you better have at least one person who has some distance from you, in regards to activitites.

 

[TrustUser]

i dont say it diminishes it, but i see absolutely no advantage to it.

i do see a disadvantage. one that you may not like, since you are a lawyer.

i prepared all of my documents by myself

it is fairly easy to do.

what if i didnt know i needed both documents ? and just figured that whatever i put in my health care directive was gonna be followed ?

if colorado wants to separate those 2 functions for whatever reason, i would still like it to have a place for a health care attorney in both forms.

i am a highly trained systems analyst. so it is my job to design systems, and discover flaws

i can see absolutely no reason whatsoever to have 2 separate documents for health care.

if you can share one reason, i will certainly consider it.

 

[TrustUser]

hi tm,

i downloaded the colorado forms. i hereby withdraw most of my complaints. i might design it a bit differently. but overall, i dont have any major complaints.

BECAUSE the living will clearly states the health care agent. and gives you the ability to check whether your health care agent can override your living will or not.

so there is no way that any sensible person could fill out a colorado living will without the understanding that he has the ability to appt a health care agent.

in fact, i sorta like some aspects of it better, now that i see it in writing. for one, a person can fill out the living will, and have it override the health care attorney, even if he has already appointed a health care attorney - giving the person the ability to change his living will decisions, without going thru the hassle of getting the signatures, etc. for a new health care attorney form.

if i lived in colorado, i would probably fill out the living will, and not give my health care attorney any ability to override those requests

and then use the health care attorney to make decisions that did not fall into the scope of the living will requests.

 

[Taxing Matters]

if i lived in colorado, i would probably fill out the living will, and not give my health care attorney any ability to override those requests

and then use the health care attorney to make decisions that did not fall into the scope of the living will requests.

Yep, that's pretty much the most common thing you see. Colorado has started to move away from statutory forms in the name of flexibility (which in some ways is a shame) but the way it's been done for long time with the statutory forms worked pretty well and that's still what most institutions expect to see. It'll be interesting to see how things develop going forward.