Video: Is Now a Good Time To Update Your Advance Directive?

Is now a good time to update your advance directive for health care? As estate planning and probate attorney Sarah Siedentopf explains, if you’ve been rethinking your medical choices, the answer is “yes.”

 

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Is now a good time to update your advance directive? Is that something that needs updating? And of course, the answer is yes. Now is a great time to update your advanced directive.

I’m Sarah Siedentopf. I’m an estate planning and probate attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. If you’ve got questions about updating your advanced directive or anything else, please give me a call.

But, in general, yes, now is a great time. First of all, all of the pandemic and other related things have had people rethinking their medical choices. If your medical choices have changed, update your advance directive. The great thing about this is, the advance directive does not require a notary. So, you sign in front of two witnesses, which can be your neighbors. They can’t be the people who are actually named as your agents, but it can be neighbors. It can be friends. It can be family members who aren’t your agents. So, whoever you feel comfortable signing in front of, you can get it updated.

Another good reason is that a lot of people have actually been thinking about whether they would or would not want to be put on a ventilator because that has been in the news and has been an issue. So, if you have specific thoughts about that, update your advance directive. There’s a spot for specific notes. You can tell the doctor and tell your healthcare agent exactly what you would want and how long you would want it to be active for. So, yes, now is a great time to update your advance directive.

If you’ve got questions about this, I’d love to help. Please give me a call, and also feel free to comment. Thanks.