Vermont Advance Directive Registry: How to Look Up, Register, and Use the VADR After a Death

Most families don't think about the Vermont Advance Directive Registry until they're sitting in a hospital or standing at a funeral home trying to figure out what their loved one actually wanted. At that point, knowing whether a directive was registered — and how to retrieve it — is not an administrative exercise. It directly determines who has legal authority to make decisions about the body.

Here is how the Vermont Advance Directive Registry (VADR) works in practice, specifically for the weeks after a death.

What the Vermont Advance Directive Registry Is

The VADR is a secure online database that allows Vermont residents to register their advance directives — legal documents that express a person's wishes about medical treatment and the disposition of their remains — so those documents are accessible to authorized parties even if the original paper copy cannot be found.

Vermont operates the registry in conjunction with the Vermont Ethics Network. Registration is free for Vermont residents. The registry stores the actual document (not just a notation that one exists), which means an authorized party who retrieves a record gets the full text of the directive, not a reference that requires a separate search for the paper original.

What can be registered includes:

• Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (naming a health care agent)
• Living Will (specifying treatment wishes)
• COLST (Clinician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment — Vermont's equivalent to what other states call POLST, for patients with advanced illness)
• Organ donation preferences
• Burial and disposition directives

The distinction between an advance directive and a COLST form matters here. An advance directive is a legal document created by the person themselves, expressing their wishes. A COLST is a medical order signed by a clinician based on those wishes. Both may be stored in the registry, but the COLST carries the force of a medical order.

Who Can Access the Registry

Access to the VADR is restricted. The following parties have statutory authorization to retrieve a registered document:

• The individual who registered the directive (the "registrant")
• The person's designated health care agent
• Licensed Vermont healthcare facilities and providers
• Licensed Vermont funeral directors
• Vermont courts

Family members who are not designated as the health care agent do not have automatic access simply by virtue of being next of kin. This is an important distinction. If your parent registered a directive naming a sibling — not you — as the health care agent, that sibling has the legal authority to act on the directive, and you do not.

To access the registry after a death, a healthcare provider or funeral director typically makes the inquiry. If you are acting as a family executor or administrator and believe a directive was registered, the most practical path is to ask the attending physician, the hospice provider, or the funeral home to make the inquiry on your behalf.

Why the Registry Matters for Estate Settlement

The reason the VADR matters beyond the medical context is this: under Vermont law, if the decedent registered a burial or disposition directive through the registry, that document legally supersedes the default statutory hierarchy of next-of-kin decision-making regarding the disposition of the remains.

Vermont's default hierarchy for who controls funeral and burial decisions runs through the surviving spouse, then adult children, then parents, then siblings. Most of the time, family members agree, and the hierarchy never becomes relevant. But when families disagree about whether to have a funeral or a direct cremation, where the ashes should go, or whether the body should be donated to science, that hierarchy determines who wins.

A registered disposition directive — one that expresses the decedent's own explicit wishes — takes precedence over the hierarchy entirely. This can be a source of significant family conflict. It can also be a relief: if the decedent left clear instructions and a family member is demanding something different, the funeral home and the court will follow the directive.

For estate executors, the practical consequence is straightforward: before making or approving any decisions about disposition of remains, check whether a directive exists. A funeral director can query the registry within hours of death.

What to Do If You Cannot Find the Paper Copy of a Directive

This is actually a common situation. Many Vermont residents completed advance directives years or decades ago, gave copies to their doctor, and never thought about it again. The paper original may have been lost, destroyed, or simply forgotten in a filing cabinet nobody can locate.

If a directive was registered with the VADR, the registry copy is legally valid. An authorized party can retrieve and rely on the registered document exactly as they would the paper original. Registration in the VADR does not make the directive stronger or weaker — it simply ensures it is accessible.

If no directive can be located in the registry and no paper copy surfaces, Vermont's default statutory hierarchy governs. This is why registration matters: without it, a document that existed and expressed real wishes has no practical effect if it cannot be found at the moment decisions need to be made.

How to Register an Advance Directive in Vermont

Registration is done through the Vermont Ethics Network's online portal. For any Vermont resident who has not yet registered their documents, the process is:

1. Prepare or locate your completed, signed, and witnessed advance directive
2. Create an account at the Vermont Ethics Network website
3. Upload a copy of the document
4. Confirm your identity and submit

There is no cost. Registration does not require an attorney, a notary, or court involvement. The directive must already be properly executed under Vermont law (signed, dated, and witnessed by two qualified adults) before it can be registered. The registry stores what you submit — it does not create or validate the underlying document.

For families dealing with an estate and wondering whether a directive exists, the first call is to the deceased's primary care physician or the treating hospice provider. Either should have received a copy and can confirm whether one was registered.

The COLST Form and How It Fits In

Because Vermont uses the COLST (Clinician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) rather than the POLST used in most other states, family members and executors from out of state sometimes encounter confusion when medical providers reference this form.

A COLST is a physician-signed medical order that translates a patient's wishes (as expressed in their advance directive) into specific clinical instructions: whether to attempt resuscitation, whether to provide artificial nutrition, what level of medical intervention to pursue. The COLST travels with the patient and is meant to be immediately actionable by any medical provider.

After death, the COLST's practical role is complete — it governed care during life. What matters for post-death decisions is the advance directive's burial and disposition provisions, and whether a health care agent was named and is available. If the health care agent is named in the directive and is living, that person has legal authority over disposition decisions, not the statutory next-of-kin hierarchy.

When a Registered Directive Conflicts with What the Family Wants

This situation does arise. A decedent registered a directive saying they wanted direct cremation with no funeral service. The surviving spouse, for their own reasons, wants a traditional burial. The directive governs.

Vermont funeral directors are legally obligated to follow the registered directive. They cannot proceed with arrangements that contradict a valid registered disposition directive without risking professional liability. If a family member pressures a funeral home to ignore a directive, the funeral home will decline — and should.

If you are an executor or a surviving family member and this situation applies to your circumstances, consult with a Vermont probate attorney. The court will enforce a properly executed and registered directive. The time to contest its validity (if you believe it was executed under duress, fraud, or incapacity) is in court, not at the funeral home.

What Estate Executors Should Confirm Early

In the first days after a death in Vermont, confirm the following before any disposition decisions are finalized:

• Did the decedent register anything with the VADR? (Ask the treating provider or funeral director to check.)
• Is there a named health care agent who has authority over disposition, or does the statutory next-of-kin hierarchy apply?
• Is there a COLST form on file with any medical provider? (Relevant for documentation, though its medical role is complete.)
• Are all family members in agreement about disposition, or is there potential for conflict that a registered directive could resolve?

The Vermont Estate Settlement Guide covers these early-phase questions alongside the full sequence of probate and property transfer steps that follow — so you have the complete picture from the first 48 hours through final distribution.

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