How to Revoke or Update an Advance Directive in Maine

You Can Revoke Your Directive at Any Time

Under 18-C M.R.S. Section 5-804, any competent person can revoke their Maine advance health care directive at any time and in any manner that clearly communicates their intent to revoke. There is no waiting period, no court filing, and no fee.

The key requirement is capacity — you must have the legal ability to understand what you are revoking. If you have been determined to lack capacity, revocation becomes more complicated and may require a legal representative.

Three Ways to Revoke

1. Execute a New Advance Directive

The simplest method. A properly executed new directive revokes an earlier directive to the extent the two conflict. You do not need to formally revoke the old one first, but distribute the new document promptly.

However, you still need to retrieve and destroy old copies to prevent confusion. A hospital that has your 2019 directive on file does not automatically know you signed a new one in 2026.

2. Sign a Written Revocation

Write a statement that you revoke your advance directive, sign it, and date it. This does not need witnesses or notarization. It just needs to clearly express your intent.

A written revocation is useful if you want to cancel your directive without immediately creating a new one — for example, if you want to change your healthcare agent but have not yet decided on a replacement.

3. Verbally Notify Your Healthcare Provider

You can revoke your agent's authority by signing a written revocation or personally informing your supervising healthcare provider. A provider, agent, guardian, or surrogate who is informed must promptly communicate the revocation to the supervising provider and any institution where you are receiving care.

Verbal revocation is useful in urgent situations — say you are in the hospital and want to change your agent right now. The provider who is informed must communicate it to the supervising provider and any institution where you are receiving care, but you should still notify other physicians and copy holders.

After Revoking: The Distribution Problem

This is where most people fail. Revoking is legally straightforward. Making sure everyone knows about the revocation is the hard part.

Maine does not have a centralized advance directive registry. Every copy of your directive was distributed manually — to your healthcare agent, alternate agent, primary care physician, local hospital, specialists, and any care facilities. Every one of those copies needs to be addressed.

Here is the process:

1. Mark old copies as "REVOKED" — write "REVOKED" across the first page in large letters, with your signature and the date
2. Notify your healthcare agent and alternate agent in writing that their authority has been revoked
3. Contact your primary care physician's office and request that the old directive be removed from your medical records and replaced with the new one (or a note of revocation)
4. Contact every hospital where the directive is on file — call the Health Information Management (HIM) department and ask them to update your records
5. Contact any long-term care facility where you reside or have resided
6. Distribute the new directive if you executed a replacement — follow the same distribution list

When You Should Update Your Directive

Life changes should trigger a review. Common situations:

• Divorce or separation: A decree of annulment, divorce, dissolution of marriage, or legal separation revokes a previous designation of a spouse as agent unless the decree or the power of attorney provides otherwise.
• Death of your agent: If your primary agent dies and you only had one alternate, you now have no backup.
• Moving to or from Maine: If you are relocating permanently, you may need a new directive compliant with your new state's laws. If you are newly a Maine resident, your out-of-state directive may be honored under reciprocity, but executing a Maine-specific one eliminates ambiguity.
• New diagnosis: A serious health diagnosis often changes what "quality of life" means to you. Preferences you documented at 55 may not reflect your values at 70 with a progressive illness.
• Family dynamics change: A falling-out with your designated agent, a new marriage, or a child reaching adulthood may all warrant updates.

A good rule of thumb: review your directive every three to five years, and after any major life event.

Partial Updates vs. Full Replacement

Maine law allows you to revoke all or part of an advance directive, but changing the agent requires a signed writing or personally informing the supervising healthcare provider. If you want to change one provision — say, switching from your daughter to your son as agent — a complete new directive is the cleanest approach.

This avoids confusion about which version of which section is current. A clean, complete replacement document with a current date eliminates interpretation disputes.

The Maine Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes instructions for both first-time execution and replacement directives, plus a distribution checklist to make sure every copy holder receives the updated version.

See more Maine guides →