Arizona Life Care Planning Packet: What's Inside and What's Missing

What the Packet Is

The Arizona Attorney General's Life Care Planning Packet is a free, downloadable PDF containing the blank statutory forms for Arizona's end-of-life planning documents. It is the official source for state-compliant advance directive templates and has been maintained by the AG's Elder Affairs division for over two decades.

The packet includes forms for:

• Health Care Power of Attorney (A.R.S. § 36-3221)
• Living Will (A.R.S. § 36-3261)
• Mental Health Care Power of Attorney (A.R.S. § 36-3282)
• Prehospital Medical Care Directive / DNR (A.R.S. § 36-3251)
• AzHDR Consumer Registration Agreement (for the state registry)

You can download it for free from the AG's website at azag.gov under "Elder Affairs / Life Care Planning."

What the Packet Does Well

The forms are the actual statutory templates. When properly executed, they satisfy Arizona law. There is no question about whether the form language is compliant — it was drafted by state attorneys to match the governing statutes exactly.

The packet also includes some introductory information about each document type and basic definitions of the legal terms used in the forms.

What the Packet Does Not Include

This is where families get stuck. The packet provides templates, not a process:

No execution instructions. The forms tell you to sign in front of a "witness" but do not explain Arizona's strict witness exclusion rules — who cannot serve, what happens if you use an ineligible witness, or when you need two witnesses versus one.

No agent selection guidance. The Healthcare POA form has a blank for your agent's name, but nothing about how to choose, brief, or prepare your agent for the actual clinical decisions they will face.

No registry filing walkthrough. The Registration Agreement is included, but the packet does not explain that the AG's office does not accept these forms — you must submit them to Contexture at AzHDR. Many families mail their completed forms to the Attorney General and never hear back.

No printing guidance for the DNR. The Prehospital DNR form is included, but there is no prominent warning that it must be printed on orange paper or cardstock to be legally valid. A black-and-white printout on white paper will not be honored by EMS.

No coordination instructions. You receive four separate forms with no explanation of how they work together, when each activates, or what happens if they conflict.

The Critical Gaps

Families who fill out the packet forms without additional guidance frequently make invalidating errors:

• Using a spouse as the sole witness (violates the single-witness exclusion rules)
• Printing the DNR on white paper (legally unenforceable)
• Forgetting to initial the inpatient admission paragraph on the Mental Health POA
• Filing the completed forms with the wrong office
• Not coordinating the Living Will treatment choices with the Healthcare POA agent's understanding of their role

The AG's office itself acknowledges these limitations by referring questions to external resources and explicitly stating that it does not provide legal advice.

How to Use the Packet Effectively

The forms themselves are perfectly valid — the issue is execution. Treat the packet as your source material, not your instruction manual. You need a separate resource that explains:

1. Who qualifies as your witness (the exclusion checklist)
2. When to use a notary instead of a witness
3. How to brief your healthcare agent on clinical scenarios
4. Where and how to file with AzHDR
5. How to print the DNR on compliant orange paper

The Arizona Advance Directive & Living Will Kit uses the AG's statutory forms as the foundation and layers on the missing execution guidance, witness audit tools, and registry submission workflow that the free packet omits.

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