How to Complete a Wyoming Advance Directive Without a Lawyer

You can complete a legally valid Wyoming advance directive without a lawyer in one evening: download the statutory Advance Health Care Directive, choose your healthcare agent, record your treatment instructions, then sign it before either two qualified witnesses or a notary public. The document itself is free and straightforward — what trips people up is execution: disqualifying a witness, skipping the WyoPOLST that makes your wishes portable, or storing the original where nobody can find it. Here's the complete sequence, in order.

Step 1: Understand What Wyoming's Form Actually Is

Wyoming doesn't use separate living wills and medical powers of attorney. Under the Wyoming Health Care Decisions Act, everything is combined into one statutory document — the Advance Health Care Directive — with four parts:

• Part 1: Power of Attorney for Health Care — names your agent and alternates
• Part 2: Instructions for Health Care — your treatment wishes (this is the "living will" part)
• Part 3: Organ Donation
• Part 4: Primary Physician designation

The form is free from the Wyoming Department of Health and the Judicial Branch. Completing all four parts consistently — so the "who" and the "what" never contradict each other — is the whole job.

Step 2: Choose Your Agent Before You Touch the Form

Part 1 is the most consequential section and the one people rush. Your agent speaks for you when you can't. Rules and realities:

• Your agent cannot be an owner, operator, or employee of a residential or community care facility where you receive care — unless related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption.
• Name at least one alternate. Agents die, move, and divorce too.
• Pick the person who will follow your wishes under pressure, not the person who's geographically closest or oldest. If you skip this and leave it to Wyoming's default surrogate hierarchy (W.S. § 35-22-406), decisions fall to a statutory pecking order — with a majority-vote rule when family members share priority. That's a sibling referendum at your bedside.

Then have the conversation. Six topics make the signed document actually work: life-sustaining treatment, CPR, tube feeding, pain relief versus alertness, dementia care, and what "quality of life" means to you. An agent who has never heard your answers is guessing.

Step 3: Record Your Treatment Instructions (Part 2)

Decide on paper first, then transfer to the form. The key choices: life-sustaining treatment in terminal and permanently unconscious conditions, CPR, artificial nutrition and hydration, comfort care, and any trial-period instructions ("try ventilation for 72 hours, then reassess"). Two Wyoming-specific provisions most guides skip:

• Pregnancy suspension: your treatment instructions are legally suspended if you're diagnosed as pregnant. Know it exists.
• Dementia provisions: if you want specific instructions for end-stage dementia care, they need to be explicit — general language doesn't cover it well.

Step 4: Execute It Correctly — Witnesses or Notary

This is where DIY directives die. Wyoming gives you two paths:

Two witnesses. Both must be competent adults, and under W.S. § 35-22-403(b) neither can be: your designated agent, your treating healthcare provider, an employee of your treating provider, or an operator/employee of a care facility where you live. In rural Wyoming — where your neighbors work at the clinic — this quietly disqualifies half your witness pool. Screen each witness against every exclusion before the signing, not after.

Notary acknowledgment. Under House Bill 48, you can acknowledge the directive before a notary public instead of using witnesses. For most people this is the cleaner path: one notary, no screening, no disqualification risk. Most banks and UPS stores have one.

Sign everything in one sitting, with the witnesses or notary physically present. Then, within a week, verify: every signature block signed, every initial placed, copies made.

Step 5: Translate It Into a WyoPOLST If Your Health Warrants It

Your advance directive is a legal document; it is not a medical order paramedics act on. If you have a serious illness or frailty, ask your Wyoming clinician (MD, PA, or APRN) to complete a WyoPOLST — the gold-paper Provider Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. Key points:

• It must be printed on gold-colored paper to be recognized
• Pay attention to the Section E initial — it's a one-way door on certain treatment choices
• Post it on your refrigerator (where EMTs look) and consider a medical bracelet as backup

A hospital DNR is not a substitute — it doesn't follow you home.

Step 6: Store and Distribute So It Actually Gets Used

The original does not belong in a safe deposit box. Distribution list: your agent, each alternate, your primary physician, and the hospital where you'd most likely be admitted. Keep the original somewhere accessible at home and tell your agent exactly where. Log who has copies — when you later revoke or update, every copy needs to be replaced.

When You Shouldn't DIY

Skip the self-directed route and hire an attorney if: capacity is or will be disputed, your family is contested, you need trust or ranch succession planning alongside the directive, or you're doing Medicaid crisis planning. For everyone else, the statutory form plus careful execution is fully valid — Wyoming law doesn't require a lawyer anywhere in the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a DIY advance directive legal in Wyoming?

Yes. Any competent adult can execute the statutory Advance Health Care Directive — signed, with two qualified witnesses or notary acknowledgment. No attorney involvement is required for validity.

Do I need witnesses or a notary in Wyoming?

Either, not both. Two qualified witnesses (screened against the statutory exclusions) or acknowledgment before a notary public under HB 48. The notary path avoids witness disqualification risk entirely.

What's the difference between the directive and a living will in Wyoming?

Wyoming combines them. The statutory directive's Part 1 is the healthcare power of attorney; Part 2 contains the treatment instructions other states call a living will. One document covers both.

Can I change or revoke my directive later?

Yes, but the rules differ by part. Treatment instructions can be revoked any way, even orally. The power of attorney requires a signed, dated writing. And note: divorce automatically revokes your ex-spouse's agent authority.

Where should I keep the original?

Somewhere accessible at home — not a safe deposit box. Your agent, alternates, doctor, and hospital get copies. If responders can't find it, it doesn't exist.

The Wyoming Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks this exact sequence — agent conversation worksheet, treatment preferences worksheet, witness screening, signing-day checklist, WyoPOLST transition protocol, and storage log. Get the complete kit, or start with the free Quick-Start checklist.

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