State of Wisconsin Advance Directive Forms: DHS Guide

Wisconsin uses two official advance directive forms: the Power of Attorney for Health Care and the Declaration to Physicians, the living will. Most households need the health care POA, signed with two qualified witnesses, plus copies filed where family and providers can find them. This walkthrough covers the order to tackle them in, where to get the current forms, witness rules, revocation, and registry filing.

Which official Wisconsin advance directive forms do I actually need?

Wisconsin recognizes two advance directive documents, and they do different jobs. The right answer for most households is the Power of Attorney for Health Care; the living will is optional backup.

Wisconsin Power of Attorney for Health Care: what it does

This form names a health care agent who can make medical decisions for you if you cannot. It covers far more ground than a living will: treatment choices, facility decisions, and anything your doctors did not predict. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) publishes the current form and instructions on its advance directives page.

Wisconsin Declaration to Physicians (living will): what it does

This document states your wishes about life-sustaining treatment if you are terminally ill or permanently unconscious. It speaks only in that narrow situation and cannot appoint anyone to act for you.

Do you need both documents?

If you complete only one, make it the POA. A living will adds value mainly when your agent and doctors need written confirmation of your end-of-life wishes. Once signed, both belong where your executor and next of kin can find them; we compare storage options, including FidSafe and Lurra, in our FidSafe alternative guide.

Where do I get the official Wisconsin Power of Attorney for Health Care form?

Wisconsin DHS and state links for both forms

Wisconsin has two advance directive forms, and both come free from state sources. The Power of Attorney for Health Care and the Declaration to Physicians (Wisconsin's living will) are both published by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and available as free downloads from the DHS advance directives page. Your county's Aging and Disability Resource Center can also provide printed copies if you prefer paper.

Why a generic template can fail Wisconsin's statutory requirements

Wisconsin's health care POA statute requires two qualified witnesses and sets out who cannot serve, including your treating health care provider and employees of certain facilities where you live. A generic template may omit the required witness disclosures or use wording Wisconsin law does not recognize, which can leave your agent without legal authority when a hospital checks the document. Download the current form directly from the Wisconsin DHS website, complete it as written, and keep the executed original where your executor or next of kin can find it. Once it is signed and witnessed, a vault like Lurra can hold the scanned copy alongside your bank account information and letter of instruction so the right people see it at the right time. For how Lurra compares with other vault services, see our Everplans alternative guide.

What are Wisconsin's witness and notarization requirements for a health care POA?

Wisconsin requires two adult witnesses when you sign your Power of Attorney for Health Care. Notarization is optional: the statute lets you satisfy the witnessing requirement with two qualified witnesses or one witness plus a notary. Most people use the two-witness route since the form's witness pages are built for it.

Who cannot serve as a witness in Wisconsin

Wisconsin disqualifies several categories: your health care agent, close relatives, anyone entitled to a share of your estate, your attending physician or their employees, and owners, operators, or employees of a health care or residential facility where you live. The current DHS instructions list these disqualifications on the form's own witness page. Pick witnesses who will be reachable when your executor or next of kin needs to confirm the signing.

Is notarization required or optional?

Optional. A notary can substitute for one witness, but never skip the second witness requirement by assuming a notarized signature alone is enough.

Signing order and dating

Sign and date the form first, then have both witnesses sign and date in your presence. Store the fully executed original where your named agent can find it quickly, and keep distribution notes alongside it; if you use a vault service, its handling of executed originals is governed by terms like Lurra's, so read them before uploading.

How do I complete the Wisconsin Declaration to Physicians (living will)?

What the living will can and cannot direct

The Wisconsin Declaration to Physicians covers two decisions only: whether you want feeding tubes withheld or withdrawn, and whether you want life-sustaining treatment stopped, if you have no reasonable hope of recovery. It cannot name an agent to speak for you, and it does not cover mental health treatment or any situation short of the two conditions below. If you want someone authorized to make decisions, that is the Power of Attorney for Health Care, covered earlier in this guide.

When it takes effect (terminal condition or persistent vegetative state)

A living will speaks only when you cannot and either (1) a terminal condition means you would die within a short time without life support, or (2) you are in a persistent vegetative state. Your doctors must certify this in writing before it applies.

Signing and witness rules for the Declaration

Sign and date the form in front of two qualified adult witnesses. Neither can be your health care agent, a close relative, or someone who would inherit from your estate. Notarization is optional for this form. Once signed, give copies to your physician, hospital file, and whoever would act for you, and keep the original findable. A letter of instruction that points family to the exact location matters as much as the form itself, which is the storage problem Lurra is built for.

How do I revoke or update a Wisconsin advance directive?

You can revoke your Power of Attorney for Health Care at any time while you have decisional capacity. Wisconsin law recognizes several ways to do it: a signed and dated written revocation, physically destroying the document yourself or having someone destroy it in your presence at your direction, stating your intent to revoke aloud in front of two witnesses, or signing a new Power of Attorney for Health Care that supersedes the earlier one. The Declaration to Physicians has its own, separately governed revocation process — check the current form's instructions or ask your provider's office if you're revoking that document specifically.

When to redo your forms (moves, divorce, agent changes)

If the agent you named was your spouse or domestic partner, divorce, annulment, or termination of the partnership automatically revokes their authority to act as agent. An agent's death, incapacity, or resignation means you need a new POA naming a replacement. Moving out of state does not invalidate the form, but if you relocate permanently, redoing it under the new state's rules avoids provider confusion.

Notifying your agent and providers after revocation

Revocation only protects you if the old copies go away. Tell your named agent, your doctor's office, and anyone holding a copy, and pull the document from your files. If you registered it with the Wisconsin registry, follow that registry's process to remove or replace it. Then store the current version where your next of kin and executor will actually find it, alongside your letter of instruction and bank account information; our estate planning checklist before 50 covers that consolidation step.

Should I register my Wisconsin advance directive with the state registry?

Wisconsin runs a free registry that stores scanned copies of your Power of Attorney for Health Care and Declaration to Physicians. Your agent, health care providers, and family members you authorize can retrieve the documents when they need them, without searching your safe or filing cabinet.

How to register copies with the Wisconsin registry

Complete and sign your forms first, following the witness and notarization rules. Then scan or photograph each signed document and upload it to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services registry along with the required registration information. Keep the originals in your possession; the registry holds copies, not legal originals.

What registration does and does not guarantee

Registration solves one specific problem: a hospital or your agent can locate a copy at 2 a.m. without calling your attorney. It does not replace signed originals, and it does not notify anyone automatically that your wishes have changed. If you revoke or update a form, you must upload the new version yourself. Registration is one storage layer; pair it with a death folder or vault where your executor and next of kin know to look.

Where should I store my Wisconsin advance directive so family and providers can find it?

A signed form nobody can find is worth nothing in an emergency. The Wisconsin DHS advance directive registry accepts registered documents and lets you control who can access them, so registering gives providers a lookup they can actually use.

Who should hold a copy (agent, physician, hospital, family)

Give your health care agent the original or a clear copy, hand one to your primary care physician for the medical record, and keep copies with the family member most likely to call first. Ask your hospital whether it will scan the POA into your chart. One copy per person, with a note of who has what.

Comparing storage options: safe, paper binder, and vaults

A home safe is secure but invisible to anyone who does not know it exists, and a paper binder solves organization but not access. Commercial vaults such as Trustworthy, Everplans, or 1Password solve findability and sharing, but they raise the durability question Bogleheads posters keep asking: will the company still exist decades from now, and can you trust it with account numbers? A layered answer beats a single point of failure: original in the safe, copies distributed to people, a registry entry for providers.

Where Lurra fits, and where it falls short

Lurra stores your letter of instruction, beneficiary designations, and the location of your originals, then turns them into step-by-step guidance your family can follow. It is honest about its limits: it is not a substitute for the Wisconsin registry, your physician's chart copy, or the signed paper itself, and if Lurra shut down tomorrow your plan should still work. Treat it as the map, not the territory.

Telling your agent where the original lives

Your letter of instruction should state exactly where the original POA sits, which safe, which key, who else knows the combination. Update that note whenever you move or revoke a document.

Do Wisconsin advance directives work when I travel out of state?

Reciprocity in general terms

Most states honor a health care POA or living will that was validly executed in Wisconsin, even though each state writes its own forms. The catch is that a few states have extra requirements, such as specific witness rules, so if you spend long stretches in one other state, it is worth checking that state's health department site or asking an attorney there. Your Wisconsin POA for Health Care remains legally yours regardless of where you signed it.

What to carry and who to tell

Keep a copy of your POA and Declaration to Physicians with you when traveling, plus your agent's phone number on a wallet card. Tell your agent where you are going and give them a copy before you leave. If you are admitted to a hospital out of state, hand the POA to admissions directly rather than relying on memory or a verbal description.