A health care power of attorney is a legal document, Pendo says. Typically, you would hire an attorney to prepare one for you, although legal websites might do the trick for simple arrangements.

If you don’t have a health care power of attorney, your nearest next of kin, such as a spouse or child 18 or older, is authorized by law to make health care decisions for you, Wayne said.

In this document, you let your loved ones and health care providers know ahead of time what your wishes are, and give the person with power of attorney the ability to execute on your direction.

There are plenty of documents you should have handy for an emergency, such as a living will and a medical power of attorney printable form. In this post, we’ll go through the seven types of forms that ...