A financial power of attorney handles your money if you can’t. A separate set of documents – your advance directives – handles your medical care and personal decisions. For Miami families, having these in place means your wishes are followed and your loved ones aren’t left guessing. Here’s a checklist of the Florida documents you need and how they fit together.
The three documents that work as a team
- Designation of health care surrogate. Florida’s version of a health care proxy. You name a trusted person to make medical decisions if you can’t speak for yourself. Florida law lets you give your surrogate authority to access medical records and act even before you’re declared incapacitated, if you choose.
- Living will. A written statement of your wishes about life-prolonging procedures if you have a terminal condition, end-stage condition, or are in a persistent vegetative state. It speaks for you on the hardest questions so your family doesn’t have to guess.
- HIPAA authorization. A release letting named people receive your medical information, so your surrogate and family can actually communicate with your doctors.
Why Miami families especially need these
Without a health care surrogate, medical providers turn to Florida’s default “proxy” priority list to find someone to decide for you – which may not be the person you’d choose, and can spark conflict in blended families. Naming your own surrogate in advance keeps the decision in the hands you trust. For multilingual Miami-Dade households, having clear written directives also reduces confusion at a stressful moment.
Checklist: what to decide before you sign
- Who is your primary surrogate, and who is the backup if they’re unavailable?
- Do you want your surrogate to act immediately, or only upon incapacity?
- What are your wishes on life support, artificial nutrition, and hydration?
- Do you have wishes about organ or tissue donation?
- Who needs HIPAA access to talk with your care team?
Checklist: making them valid in Florida
- Sign your living will and surrogate designation with two adult witnesses; at least one witness should not be your spouse or a blood relative.
- Keep originals accessible – give copies to your surrogate, your doctors, and any Miami hospital system you regularly use.
- Carry a wallet card or note saying these documents exist and who holds them.
- Review after a move, divorce, or new diagnosis.
How this fits your larger plan
Advance directives address your body and care; your durable power of attorney (Chapter 709) addresses your finances; and your will or revocable trust addresses what happens after death. Together they form a complete incapacity-and-estate plan. A gap in any one of them can force your family into court when they should be focused on your care.
Your quick checklist
- Choose your health care surrogate and a backup.
- Write down your end-of-life wishes in a living will.
- Sign a HIPAA release for the people who need information.
- Execute everything with proper witnesses under Florida law.
- Distribute copies and revisit after major life changes.
Talk to a Florida attorney. Medical-decision laws and witnessing rules are specific, and your directives should reflect your real wishes. A Florida-licensed estate planning attorney serving the Miami area can prepare directives that hospitals and your family will honor.
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For more on our Florida practice, see our overview of Florida estate planning. Morgan Legal Group's affiliated New York office also handles .