Where to Store Your Florida Advance Directive and How to Revoke It

You spent time getting your Florida advance directive executed correctly — right witnesses, right signatures, yellow paper for the DNRO. Then you put it in a filing cabinet and never thought about it again.

Months later, you are in the ER after a fall. Your healthcare surrogate tells the nurse you have a living will. The nurse asks for it. Nobody knows where it is.

Storage is not an afterthought. It is part of the plan.

Where to Keep the Originals

Living Will and Surrogate Designation

Florida does not have a centralized advance directive registry. There is no state database where hospitals can look up your documents. Distribution is entirely your responsibility.

Keep the originals in a location that is:

• Accessible to your surrogate — not behind a lock your surrogate does not have a key to
• Separate from your safe deposit box — a safe deposit box may be inaccessible during a weekend emergency or after your incapacity
• Fire and water resistant — a fireproof home safe is ideal

Do not keep the originals at your attorney's office as the sole location. If your surrogate needs the documents at 2 AM on a Saturday, the attorney's office is closed.

Pre-Hospital DNRO (Form DH 1896)

The original yellow-paper DNRO must be stored where EMS personnel will find it during a home emergency. The standard location is on or next to the refrigerator door — paramedics across Florida are trained to check there first.

If you live in an assisted living facility or nursing home, the original goes in your medical chart and a copy is posted in your room.

Who Gets Copies

Distribute copies to:

1. Your healthcare surrogate and alternate surrogate — they need to present the documents to hospitals and providers. Give them physical copies and digital scans
2. Your primary care physician — ask them to add the documents to your medical record
3. Your specialists — any physician managing a significant condition (cardiologist, oncologist, neurologist)
4. Your hospital of choice — many Florida hospitals allow you to pre-register advance directives in their electronic health record system. Call the admissions or patient relations department
5. Your attorney — if you have an estate planning attorney, send a copy for their file
6. Close family members — even if they are not your surrogate, family members who might be present during an emergency should know the documents exist and where to find them

Digital Copies

Scan all documents and store them in:

• A shared cloud folder accessible to your surrogate
• Your phone (as a photo or PDF in a health folder)
• Your surrogate's phone

The original signed document is the legal authority. But a digital copy gets the conversation started at a hospital while the original is being retrieved. Most hospital compliance departments will begin working with a digital copy and request the original within 24 to 48 hours.

How to Revoke a Florida Advance Directive

Under § 765.104, you can revoke a living will or surrogate designation at any time by:

1. Physical destruction — tearing up, shredding, or burning the original
2. Written revocation — a signed and witnessed written statement revoking the prior document
3. Oral revocation — verbally telling your attending physician, who must document the revocation in your medical record
4. Executing a new document — the most recent advance directive supersedes all prior versions

Revocation is effective immediately. You do not need to notify everyone who received a copy, but you should make a reasonable effort to retrieve or destroy old copies to prevent confusion.

The DNRO Revocation

You can revoke a pre-hospital DNRO at any time by:

• Destroying the yellow form
• Verbally telling EMS personnel to resuscitate (they must comply immediately)
• Having your physician write a new order

If you revoke your DNRO, destroy the yellow form and notify your physician, your surrogate, and any facility where a copy was posted.

Updating Your Documents

Florida advance directives do not expire. A form signed in 2005 remains valid in 2026. But your circumstances, preferences, and medical situation change.

Review and consider updating your documents:

• Every 3 to 5 years as a routine check
• After a major health event (new diagnosis, surgery, hospitalization)
• After a major life event (marriage, divorce, death of your designated surrogate)
• After moving to Florida from another state (ensure Florida compliance)
• When the law changes (the 2015 immediate-authority amendment, for example)

When you execute new documents, they automatically supersede the old ones. Retrieve and destroy old copies to prevent conflicting versions from circulating.

The Florida Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes a storage and distribution checklist and a document update schedule, so every copy ends up in the right hands.

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