What Does an End-of-Life Attorney Do?

An end-of-life attorney focuses on legal planning for the end of a person's life and for what happens afterward. This work can include wills, trusts, and advance directives.

In Florida, an advance directive is a witnessed written document or oral statement giving instructions or expressing the principal's wishes about the principal's health care or health information. It includes the designation of a health care surrogate, a living will, and an anatomical gift.

A health care surrogate is a competent adult expressly designated by the principal to make health care decisions and receive health information. The document designating a surrogate must be signed by the principal in the presence of two subscribing adult witnesses. A living will states the principal's instructions about life-prolonging procedures.

Planning ahead lets a person decide how property will pass and who will make medical decisions if the person cannot. If a person dies without a will, any part of the estate not disposed of by will passes to the heirs under Florida law, and a court-appointed personal representative administers the probate estate.