Advance Directives in Texas: Living Will and Medical POA (2026)

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An advance directive lets you decide, ahead of time, how you want to be treated if you can no longer speak for yourself. In Texas, the phrase actually covers a small family of documents defined in Chapter 166 of the Health and Safety Code.1 The two that matter most for planning are the Directive to Physicians (often called a living will) and the Medical Power of Attorney.

This guide explains what each document covers, how they work together, and how to complete them.

The Texas advance directive family
  • Directive to Physicians and Family or Surrogates (living will): your written wishes about life-sustaining treatment.2
  • Medical Power of Attorney: names an agent to make health care decisions for you.3
  • Out-of-Hospital Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) Order: instructs against resuscitation outside a hospital.
  • Declaration for Mental Health Treatment: preferences for certain mental health care.

The Directive to Physicians (living will)

The Directive to Physicians, authorized by Subchapter B of Chapter 166, is Texas's version of a living will. In it you state, in advance, what you want to happen if you have a terminal or irreversible condition and can no longer communicate.2 You can direct that life-sustaining treatment be provided, withheld, or withdrawn, and you can add your own instructions about the care you would or would not want.

The directive speaks for you when you cannot speak for yourself, so your doctors and family are not left guessing about wrenching decisions. It is a statement of your wishes about treatment, which is different from naming a person to decide, and that difference is exactly why the second document exists.

The Medical Power of Attorney

A Directive to Physicians cannot anticipate every situation. The Medical Power of Attorney fills the gap by naming a trusted person, your health care agent, to make medical decisions for you whenever you are unable to, not just at the end of life.3 Your agent can choose doctors and facilities, consent to or refuse treatments, and weigh options as circumstances change.

The two documents are complementary. The living will records your wishes; the medical power of attorney appoints a human being to apply judgment to the situations a form could never predict. For the full detail on appointing a health care agent, along with the financial power of attorney, see our guide to powers of attorney in Texas.

How to complete your advance directives

  1. Use the Texas statutory forms. The Health and Safety Code provides model forms for both the Directive to Physicians and the Medical Power of Attorney, and the Texas Health and Human Services agency publishes them for free.1
  2. Choose your agent carefully. For the medical power of attorney, pick someone who knows your values and can stay calm under pressure. Name an alternate.
  3. Sign correctly. A Texas medical power of attorney must be signed before two qualified witnesses or acknowledged before a notary. At least one witness cannot be your agent, a relative, an heir, or your health care provider.3 The Directive to Physicians has a similar witnessing requirement.2
  4. Distribute copies. Give copies to your agent, your doctor, and close family, and keep the original where it can be found quickly.
Tell people these documents exist. An advance directive that no one can find during an emergency does no good. Make sure your agent, your primary doctor, and your closest family members each have a copy and know your wishes. In a crisis there may be no time to search a filing cabinet.

Keep them current

Review your advance directives every few years and after major life events, a marriage, a divorce, a new diagnosis, or the death of the person you named as agent. You can revoke or replace them at any time while you have capacity, and a Texas medical power of attorney can be revoked by notifying your agent or provider regardless of your mental state.3

How advance directives fit your estate plan

Advance directives handle health care decisions during your life; they say nothing about your property. That is the job of a will, which takes over at death. A complete plan pairs your advance directives and powers of attorney with a valid will, so that both your medical care and your property are handled the way you want. To complete the will side, read how to write a will in Texas or create your Texas will here.

Sources

  1. 1Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 166, Advance Directives (statutes.capitol.texas.gov)
  2. 2Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 166, Subchapter B, Directive to Physicians (statutes.capitol.texas.gov)
  3. 3Advance Directives, Texas Health and Human Services (hhs.texas.gov)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an advance directive in Texas? A set of documents under Health and Safety Code Chapter 166. The two main ones are the Directive to Physicians (living will) and the Medical Power of Attorney.

What is the difference between a living will and a medical power of attorney? A living will records your own wishes about life-sustaining treatment. A medical power of attorney names a person to make health care decisions for you in any situation.

Does a Texas advance directive need to be notarized? A medical power of attorney must be signed before two qualified witnesses or notarized. The Directive to Physicians has a similar witnessing requirement.

Can I change my advance directive? Yes. You can revoke or replace it at any time while you have capacity, and a medical power of attorney can be revoked by telling your agent or provider.

Max Kuch

About the author

Max Kuch

Max Kuch writes about estate planning, wills and inheritance for Texas Will Template. He gathers the rules from the Texas statutes and the leading public data, then explains them in plain, accessible language so anyone can put their wishes in writing.

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Frequently asked questions

Yes, provided you finish it the right way. Under Tex. Est. Code Sec. 251.051 and 251.052, a holographic will is valid when it is written wholly in your own handwriting and signed by you. No witnesses are required and no date is required. What we hand you is a clean, correctly structured draft. It becomes a legally valid holographic will the moment you copy the whole thing out by hand on paper and sign it yourself.

Because Texas recognizes two separate paths, and printing points you toward the harder one. A typed or printed will has to be signed in front of two credible witnesses to be valid. A holographic will skips the witnesses entirely, but only if it is written completely in your own handwriting. If you print our draft and sign it alone, it is neither a valid witnessed will nor a valid holographic will. Copying the full text by hand is what makes the witness-free route work, so the handwriting is not a formality, it is the whole point.

Texas gives you unusually wide freedom here. There is no forced heirship and no elective share, so you are not required to leave a fixed portion to your spouse or to your children, and you can disinherit an adult child if you choose. One thing you cannot give away, though, is property that is not fully yours. Texas is a community property state, which means your surviving spouse already owns one half of everything the two of you acquired during the marriage. Your will can only dispose of your own half of the community property plus your separate property, so name what is genuinely yours to give.

Keep the signed original somewhere safe and dry, and make sure the person you named as executor knows exactly where it is, because a copy is far weaker than the original if the will ever has to be probated. If you want extra security, the clerk of the county where you live can hold your will for safekeeping during your lifetime under Tex. Est. Code Sec. 252.001, whether you are in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio or anywhere else in the state. Texas has no statewide will registry, so there is no central database to file it in.

We strongly recommend against a single shared document. A holographic will has to be wholly in one person's handwriting, so two people physically cannot create one valid handwritten will together. Beyond that, joint wills tend to lock the survivor into terms that are painful to change after the first death. The clean solution is two separate mirror wills, one in each spouse's own handwriting, each signed by that spouse. You can make them say almost the same thing while keeping each one independently valid and freely revocable.

Yes, and it is easy. A Texas will has no expiration, but life does not stand still, so revisit it after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death or a move. The safest way to make a change is to handwrite and sign a brand new holographic will that revokes all previous wills, then destroy the old signed original so no stale version can surface later. Avoid scribbling edits in the margins of a finished will, since alterations can raise doubt about what you actually intended.

No, and we do not pretend it does. This service gives you a solid, well-organized draft for a straightforward estate, which covers a great many Texas families perfectly well. But if your situation is complex, for example a blended family, a business, property in more than one state, a beneficiary with special needs or a plan that involves a trust, you should have a Texas estate attorney review it. Think of this as a strong, affordable starting point, not as legal advice.

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