Advance Care Planning NZ

What this guide covers

This guide is written as a practical reference for New Zealand families organizing private records before they become urgent. It focuses on the details that make a plan understandable to someone who may need to act quickly and carefully.

• Legacy Toolkit does not create medical directions or replace clinical advice.
• The vault can keep healthcare wishes, document locations, and trusted contacts together.
• Advance care planning records should be shared carefully and reviewed as wishes change.

Keep wishes, documents, and contacts together

An advance care planning record should identify what has been written down, where it is kept, who has a copy, and which family, whānau, healthcare, EPOA, or professional contacts may need to know about it.

• Advance care plan location, document status, and copy notes
• Healthcare provider, family, whānau, EPOA, and advisor contacts
• Review reminders for wishes, contacts, documents, and sharing decisions

Record advance directive and living will context carefully

Advance directive NZ and living will NZ searches can involve treatment preferences and future healthcare choices. Legacy Toolkit can organise the surrounding notes and files, but healthcare and legal questions should be checked with qualified New Zealand professionals.

• Plain notes about treatment preferences, care priorities, and personal values
• Document locations for any advance directive or related healthcare record
• Clear labels that separate formal documents from supporting notes

Connect healthcare wishes to personal care EPOA records

Advance care planning often sits beside enduring power of attorney records, especially personal care and welfare EPOA context. Keep attorney contacts, document locations, healthcare contacts, and family notes close together.

• Personal care and welfare EPOA contact details
• Doctors, specialists, hospice, aged care, pharmacy, and support contacts
• Care preferences, cultural wishes, spiritual needs, and family context

Make the plan findable without oversharing

The right people should know that the plan exists and where to find the relevant section. That does not mean the full private vault should be shared. Use selected trusted access and keep review notes current.

• Selected access for family, EPOA, advisors, and trusted support people
• Notes about who has a copy and who should be updated after changes
• Exportable summaries for healthcare or family conversations when needed

Common New Zealand questions

How this fits in Legacy Toolkit

Use this guide as a working checklist inside the desktop vault. Create or review the relevant profile sections, attach the documents that support each record, add reminders where information can go stale, and share only the sections a trusted person needs for their role.

The goal is not to turn a private life into a public folder. The goal is to keep the plan legible, current, and controlled so the right person can find the right information without receiving the whole vault by default.

• Profile sections keep the plan readable instead of turning it into a loose notes file.
• Document attachments keep proof beside the account, asset, policy, or instruction it supports.
• Trusted access lets you prepare a handoff without exposing the full vault by default.

Advance care planning NZ record checklist

Treat this as a first pass, not a final legal packet. Review the items, fill in what is missing, and return to the plan whenever a provider, account, advisor, family role, or document changes.

• Record advance care plan location, copy notes, and review reminders.
• List healthcare provider, family, whānau, EPOA, advisor, and trusted contact details.
• Attach advance directive, living will, healthcare, care, and personal-wishes notes where relevant.
• Connect healthcare wishes to EPOA, end-of-life, emergency, and document records.
• Share selected sections with the right trusted people and review access after changes.

Official New Zealand references

These links are included for context. Legacy Toolkit helps organise records and does not replace legal, financial, tax, medical, or court advice.

• Advance care planning: Your plan
• Health and Disability Commissioner: Advance directives and enduring powers of attorney
• New Zealand Government: Enduring power of attorney
• New Zealand Government: Personal care and welfare enduring power of attorney