Where to Store Your Advance Directive in Utah

You completed your advance directive, had it properly witnessed, and put the original in your filing cabinet. Six months later, you are rushed to a Utah emergency room and nobody — not the ER physician, not the admissions staff, not your spouse — can locate the document.

This happens constantly. Utah has no state-run public registry for advance directives, which means distribution is entirely your responsibility. If the right people do not have copies before a crisis, the directive might as well not exist.

Where to File Copies

Your Healthcare Agent and Alternate

Your designated agent needs a copy immediately after signing. They should store it where they can access it within minutes — not in a storage unit or buried in a filing cabinet. The same applies to your alternate agent.

If you executed the directive electronically under HB 181, send both agents the digital file and confirm they can open it on their phone.

Hospital Patient Portals

Utah's two largest health systems both accept advance directives through their patient portals:

Intermountain Health (MyChart): Upload your directive through the MyChart portal or deliver a copy to your primary care clinic. Intermountain's advance care planning program will add it to your electronic medical record, making it accessible to any Intermountain facility statewide.

University of Utah Health: Submit your directive through the University of Utah Health patient portal or provide a copy at your next appointment. It becomes part of your centralized medical record across the University health system.

If you use providers outside these systems — IHC Physicians Group, community hospitals, or independent clinics — provide a copy directly to each provider's office.

Your Primary Care Physician

Regardless of which health system you use, give a copy to your primary care physician's office. The front desk can scan it into your chart. When you are referred to a specialist or admitted to a hospital, your PCP's records are typically the first place the admitting team checks for advance directive documentation.

Care Facilities

If you live in or are being admitted to a nursing home, assisted living facility, or memory care unit, the facility's admissions process should include advance directive documentation. Provide a copy during intake. Ask the facility to flag your chart so staff know the directive exists.

Your Attorney's Office

If an attorney helped prepare your estate plan, they likely keep a copy in their document vault. This serves as a backup but should not be your primary distribution method — attorneys' offices are not accessible at 2 AM on a Saturday when the ER needs your document.

Where NOT to Store Your Only Copy

Safe deposit boxes. Bank vaults are inaccessible outside business hours, require a key and sometimes a death certificate to open, and are the single worst place to store a document needed during medical emergencies.

Locked safes at home. Unless your healthcare agent has the combination and can access your home independently, a locked safe creates the same barrier as a bank vault.

Only on your computer. A password-protected laptop that your agent cannot access is useless in a crisis. If you store the directive electronically, make sure your agent has access to the file — shared cloud storage, email, or a dedicated folder they know about.

Making Your Directive Findable in an Emergency

Paramedics and ER staff will not search your house for legal documents. If you want your wishes known during a pre-hospital emergency, you need additional steps:

Carry a wallet card. A small card stating that you have an advance directive, naming your healthcare agent with their phone number, and noting where the document is stored. Some families include this in a medical ID bracelet or emergency contact card in their phone case.

Post a POLST if applicable. If you have a Provider Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment, the bright blue form should be visibly posted — traditionally on the refrigerator or next to your bed. Unlike an advance directive, a POLST is designed specifically for emergency responders and must be immediately visible.

Tell your family. Your spouse, adult children, and close family members should know that the directive exists, where copies are stored, and who your healthcare agent is. This sounds obvious, but many families never have this conversation.

Updating Distribution After Changes

If you revoke your directive and execute a new one, you must chase down every copy of the old version. An outdated directive still on file at a hospital creates dangerous confusion when providers find conflicting documents.

After any update:

• Replace copies with your healthcare agent, alternate agent, and primary care physician
• Upload the new version to hospital portals (replacing the old one)
• Notify care facilities if applicable
• Destroy physical copies of the superseded directive

The Utah Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes a distribution tracking worksheet to ensure every copy is accounted for — and a post-update checklist for when you revoke or revise your directive.

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