April 3, 2024 – An estimated 75% of adult Wisconsin residents have not completed an advance directive documenting their preferences surrounding health care decisions.

Advance care planning is more important than ever. Are you one of the 75%? Do you have ideas about what you would like to happen regarding health care decisions for yourself – but do your family members know your wishes? Are your clients prepared?

“Due to accidents or illness, three out of four people will be unable to make some or all of their medical decisions during or at the end of life,” said elder law and special needs attorney Ben Adams. “If this happens to you, doctors need to know who can make decisions for you.”

Ben Adams, retired, of McCarty Law in Appleton, is an advisor to the State Bar of Wisconsin Elder Law & Special Needs Section board of directors.

Start the Conversation

Starting April 10 and continuing through April 24, 2024, you can gain access to the free PDF from the State Bar: A Gift to Your Family: Planning Ahead for Future Health Needs, a health care decisions planning guide, also available at wisbar.org/healthcare.

The guide is available for purchase before and after this time period for $4 for State Bar members and $5 for nonmembers. And through April 30, 2024, you can get 20% off (use code 1196 at checkout).

As it does each year, the State Bar is offering this guide at no cost in honor of Gov. Tony Evers Proclamation of Healthcare Decisions Week in Wisconsin, April 14-20, 2024, and National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) on April 16, 2024. This annual initiative ​serves as a reminder to let your family know your wishes about advance care planning. Use this event to talk to your family and clients about their needs as well.

Under Wisconsin law, competent adults have the right to control decisions about their future medical care, including the right to accept or refuse treatment, the right to appoint an advocate to speak for them if they are incapacitated, and the right to be an organ and tissue donor.

“If you haven’t named someone to be your advocate in a health care power of attorney document and talked with that person, and you become incapacitated or incompetent, then it’s likely that a court proceeding will be needed to appoint a medical decision-maker for you,” Adams said. “But the court process can be avoided in most cases if you do advance care planning.”

Planning Guide PDF Available Free April 10-24

Wisconsin is participating in this annual initiative, and with Gov. Tony Evers's proclamation, the State Bar of Wisconsin honors the event of the week of April 16-23 by providing members and the public free access to its end-of-life planning tool, A Gift to Your Family: Planning Ahead for Future Health Needs. From April 10 through April 24, 2024, this PDF is available free atwisbar.org/healthcare.

A Gift to Your Family offers practical insights on a range of issues surrounding health care decisions, such as power of attorney for health care, living wills, and organ and tissue donation. The guide also includes state forms to help people put their wishes in writing.

How to Order A Gift to Your Family in Print

To order the print guide for family, friends or clients, visit WisBar.org’s Marketplace for the guide. The cost is $4 for State Bar members and $5 for nonmembers. And through April 30, 2024, you can get 20% off (use code 1196 at checkout). ​Additional discounts are available for large quantities.

The State Bar also offers editions for those living in Minnesota and Illinois.

The 24-page A Gift to Your Family, now in its eighth edition, initially was produced in 2000 through a partnership with the Wisconsin Hospital Association, the Wisconsin Medical Society, and Gunderson Lutheran Medical Center.