Five Wishes Florida: What It Covers, What It Misses, and Better Alternatives

Five Wishes, published by the nonprofit Aging with Dignity, is one of the most recognized advance directive documents in the United States. It is legally valid as a living will in Florida, and hospice workers, hospital chaplains, and AARP chapters have distributed millions of copies.

At $5 for a paper copy or $7.50 for digital, it is affordable and empathetic. But it has real gaps that Florida families need to understand before relying on it as their sole planning document.

What Five Wishes Does Well

The document covers five categories:

1. Who I want to make healthcare decisions for me — essentially a surrogate designation
2. The kind of medical treatment I want or don't want — living will preferences
3. How comfortable I want to be — pain management, comfort care instructions
4. How I want people to treat me — personal dignity, spiritual preferences
5. What I want my loved ones to know — messages, forgiveness, funeral wishes

The emotional and spiritual sections (3, 4, and 5) are its real strength. No statutory form covers whether you want someone reading to you, whether you prefer to die at home or in a hospital, or what music you want playing. For families having their first end-of-life conversation, Five Wishes provides a framework that feels less clinical and more personal.

What Five Wishes Does Not Cover

No Pre-Hospital DNRO

Five Wishes does not include Form DH 1896, Florida's yellow-paper Do Not Resuscitate Order. If you stop breathing at home and paramedics arrive, your Five Wishes document will not prevent full CPR. EMS personnel follow the DNRO — they do not read living wills during an emergency response.

No Financial Power of Attorney

Five Wishes addresses healthcare decisions only. It does not name anyone to manage your bank accounts, pay your bills, sell property, or handle tax filings during incapacity. You need a separate Durable Power of Attorney under Chapter 709 for financial authority — and that document has its own strict execution rules, including the 2011 superpowers-initials requirement.

No POLST Coordination

Five Wishes does not address POLST forms or explain how to coordinate your treatment preferences into physician-signed medical orders that travel between care facilities. For patients with serious advanced illness, POLST fills a critical gap between your expressed wishes and actionable clinical orders.

No Pre-Need Guardian Declaration

Florida allows you to nominate a guardian in advance under § 744.3045 — a filing that creates a rebuttable presumption in court if someone ever petitions for guardianship over you. Five Wishes does not address this, leaving a gap for patients with progressive cognitive conditions.

No Homestead or Estate Guidance

Florida's constitutional homestead restrictions mean you cannot freely leave your primary residence to anyone if you are survived by a spouse or minor child. Five Wishes does not flag this issue. Families who complete Five Wishes thinking they have covered their planning often discover the homestead trap only after a death, when the will's devise of the home is declared void.

The Witness Problem

Five Wishes meets Florida's witness requirements (two witnesses, one unrelated) — but only if the user follows the instructions correctly. The document's warm, conversational tone can obscure the legal precision required. Some families have both spouses witness each other's forms, or use the named surrogate as a witness, invalidating the documents without realizing it.

When Five Wishes Is Enough

For a healthy adult in a simple family situation who wants to start the planning conversation, Five Wishes is a legitimate first step. It provides a legally valid living will and surrogate designation in an accessible format.

When You Need More

If any of these apply, Five Wishes alone leaves gaps:

• You want a pre-hospital DNRO (prevents CPR at home)
• You need a financial Durable Power of Attorney
• You own Florida homestead property and are married or have minor children
• You have a progressive condition like dementia and want a pre-need guardian nomination
• You are a snowbird who splits time between Florida and another state

The Florida Advance Directive & Living Will Kit covers the full document set — healthcare surrogate, living will, DNRO protocol, financial DPOA guidance, pre-need guardian filing, and the homestead planning trap — in one coordinated system.

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