Advance directive · Michigan
Michigan advance directive
Michigan's durable power of attorney for health care is the document that names who can speak for you about medical care if you can't speak for yourself, and what kinds of treatment you want (or don't want) at the end of life. Kintaria helps you fill it out in about 10 minutes, then print, sign, and keep accessible.
What an advance directive is
An advance directive is a legal document that does two things at once: it names a health care agent (sometimes called a health care proxy, surrogate, attorney-in-fact, or representative — the term varies by state) who can make medical decisions on your behalf when you can't, and it spells out your treatment preferences for the end-of-life scenarios where modern medicine can prolong dying as easily as it can prolong living.
The single most common regret families voice in hospice and palliative care is that the advance directive wasn't in place — that the agent wasn't named, that the preferences weren't written down, that the family had to guess in the worst week of their lives at what their mother or father would have wanted. The form fixes that for a few hours of work, decades before the moment it's needed.
What Michigan's form covers
The official Michigan form is the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. It covers the universal pieces of advance care planning (agent, alternates, treatment preferences for terminal and persistent- unconsciousness states, comfort care, organ donation) using MI- specific statutory language. Other states have their own forms with slightly different structures — the underlying preferences are portable, but the form you sign should be the one your state recognizes.
How to sign it (witnesses + notary)
Michigan's execution requirements — how many witnesses you need, whether a notary can substitute, who is disqualified from witnessing — are baked into the Kintaria wizard. We tell you what your state requires at the end of the form, with the exact wording you need to read to your witnesses. The Michigan Bar Association or your state health department also publishes the canonical instructions; the form on CaringInfo's state-by-state directory is the most-widely-used free version.
As a general rule across most states: two adult witnesses (often with restrictions — typically not your designated agent, not your healthcare provider, not someone who stands to inherit from you) OR a notary public as a single-signature alternative. Michigan's specifics are in the wizard.
Where to keep the signed form
- One original, signed copy in your home, somewhere accessible — not in a safe deposit box.
- A scanned copy in your Kintaria document vault, tagged as Advance directive, so the family can pull it up from a phone in an ER.
- A copy on file with your primary care physician's office.
- A copy with each named agent and alternate.
- Optionally: registered with your state's advance-directive registry if Michigan has one. Many states do; the registry lets hospitals look up your directive without the family having to produce paper.
When to update it
The form holds until you change it. Practically, re-review it every 5–10 years and after any of the following: a divorce or new marriage, a serious diagnosis, the death of an agent, a move to a different state. Moves matter — your Michigan directive will likely be honored in another state under reciprocity rules, but having the local form on file avoids the friction at an out-of-state hospital.
What this isn't
An advance directive is not a will (those handle property after death), not a financial power of attorney (those handle money during life), not a POLST or MOLST form (those translate end-of-life preferences into clinician orders for emergency responders — usually signed later, by a doctor, when serious illness is already present). You may want all four documents eventually. The advance directive is the foundational one, and the one most worth completing this month.
One thing we're not: Kintaria isn't a law firm. The wizard helps you fill out the official Michigan form using plain-English help text; you're responsible for signing it correctly per Michigan's rules. If your situation involves contested guardianship, complex assets, or a parent whose capacity is being questioned, work with an elder-law attorney — your resources page has a Special Needs Alliance directory and other starting points.
Other state guides
We have an advance-directive guide for every US state and DC. The underlying principles are universal; the forms are state-specific.
Start the MI advance directive in Kintaria →
Free. About 10 minutes. Saved to your family's shared workspace.