Virginia Living Will Requirements

Prepared by the trusts and estates section of the virginia state bar.

Virginia living will requirements.

What are the requirements for signing a will in virginia. To finalize your will in virginia. Virginia department of social services division of licensing programs. A living will is a form that will allow a person principal to arrange in writing their end of life wishes pertaining to their medical care.

You must sign or acknowledge your will in front of two witnesses and. Virginia code 64 2 403. 1 800 552 7977 statewide or 804 775 0808 richmond va tdd voice line hearing impaired. Healthcare decisions day in the commonwealth of virginia.

This document would allow the principal to assign a representative health care agent to be certain that there would be someone to monitor their. A suggested advance medical directive is attached below. Virginia will forms are legal documents that assist a person in preparing for end of life situations. Healthcare decisions day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions related to end of life care and medical decision making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions.

Your witnesses must sign your will in front of you. No in virginia you do not need to notarize your will to make it. Do you need a last will and testament. The details of virginia s living will laws are listed below.

Under virginia living will laws a living will is only valid if it is written by a competent adult and signed in the presence of two witnesses along with some other requirements. Do i need to have my will notarized. No will shall be valid unless it is in writing and signed by the testator or by some other person in the testator s presence and by his direction in such a manner as to make it manifest that the name is intended as a signature. A living will also known as an advance directive allows a person to state their end of life medical treatment and care this document does not hold any bearings after death it solely directs physicians to care for a person based on what is stated in their living will especially with issues such as dnr do not resuscitate without this document it s difficult to judge an ill or.

If valid a living will binds health care providers to its instructions. See findlaw s living will basics section for additional information. Virginia explicitly allows living wills called advance medical directives. For assistance in finding a lawyer contact the.

Although a last will and testament is not legally required without a will the laws of intestacy will determine the distribution of an estate s assets.