Minnesota Health Care Directive

Minnesota rolls the living will and the medical power of attorney into one document called a health care directive. In a single written instrument you can state the care you want, name a health care agent to decide for you when you cannot, or do both. To be legally sufficient the directive must be in writing, dated, state your name, be signed by you (or by someone you authorize to sign for you), and have that signature verified either by a notary public or by two witnesses. You do not need both. This sits in Minnesota Statutes chapter 145C, the Health Care Directives chapter. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.03, subd. 1; the two-witness count comes from the suggested form in Minn. Stat. 145C.16.)

One more Minnesota fact matters before anything else: if you never sign a directive, Minnesota has no statutory default surrogate list. The statute expressly creates no presumption about what a person without a directive would have wanted. National sites that print a "spouse, then adult children, then parents" priority order for Minnesota are describing law that does not exist here. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.10(e).)

Use this Minnesota health care directive guide as a planning map, not as a finished form. The wording you need depends on your health, your family, and your wishes. This page connects to the Minnesota probate and estate directory and to the Minnesota power of attorney guide for the money side of planning.

What a Minnesota Health Care Directive Does

A health care directive must include a health care instruction, a health care power of attorney, or both. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.03, subd. 1.)

Health care instructions. These are your living-will-style statements: values, preferences, guidelines, or directions about your care, including end-of-life care. Minnesota no longer uses a stand-alone living will statute for new documents. Any document signed as a living will on or after August 1, 1998 is governed by chapter 145C, while living wills validly signed before that date remain effective under the older chapter 145B. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145B.011.)
A health care agent. The health care power of attorney part appoints an adult, age 18 or older, to make health care decisions for you. You can also name alternate agents as backups, or joint agents. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.01, subd. 2 and 145C.05, subd. 2.)

The directive can carry more than those two pieces. The statute lets it include an anatomical gift, a funeral directive, instructions about intrusive mental health treatment, limits on your agent's access to your medical records, and even instructions prohibiting opioids, among other provisions. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.05, subd. 2.)

A naming note that trips people up: Minnesota does not have a separate "health care surrogate" or "medical power of attorney" form on top of this. The agent appointment lives inside the health care directive. And a financial power of attorney under Minnesota's chapter 523 does not grant medical authority. Money decisions and medical decisions run on two different documents, which is why this guide pairs with the Minnesota power of attorney guide.

How to Sign It in Minnesota

To be legally sufficient in Minnesota, a health care directive must meet six requirements. It must be in writing, be dated, state the principal's name, be executed by a principal with capacity and signed by the principal or by another person the principal authorizes to sign on the principal's behalf, contain verification of that signature either by a notary public or by witnesses, and include a health care instruction, a health care power of attorney, or both. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.03, subd. 1.)

The notary-or-witnesses choice is the practical headline. Pick one route:

Option 1: a notary. Sign before a notary public. No witnesses needed.
Option 2: two witnesses. Sign before two witnesses, the count shown in the suggested form in Minn. Stat. 145C.16. No notary needed.

Whichever route you take, the statute restricts who can fill those roles. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.03, subd. 3.)

Your named agent or alternate agent may not act as a witness or as the notary for the directive that appoints them.
If you use witnesses, at least one of the two must not be a health care provider giving you direct care, or an employee of such a provider, on the date you sign.
A person notarizing the directive may be an employee of a provider giving you direct care, so a notary at your clinic or hospital can work.

There are also limits on who can serve as your agent. A health care provider attending you, or an employee of that provider, cannot act as your agent unless they are related to you by blood, marriage, registered domestic partnership, or adoption, or unless you say otherwise in the directive. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.03, subd. 2.)

You do not have to use any particular form. Minn. Stat. 145C.16 provides a suggested health care directive form, with an agent-appointment part, an instructions part, and a signing part that shows the notary option and the two-witness option. The statute says a directive "may, but need not" use that form. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.05, subd. 1.)

If you signed a directive or similar document in another state, Minnesota honors it when it complies with the law of the state where you signed it or with Minnesota's own requirements. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.04.)

When the Directive Takes Effect

A Minnesota health care directive does not hand over your decisions the moment you sign it. It becomes effective for a health care decision when it meets the legal-sufficiency requirements and your attending physician, advanced practice registered nurse, or physician assistant determines you lack decision-making capacity to make that decision, or when other conditions you specified in the directive have been met. It stops being effective for a decision when, in that same determination, you recover decision-making capacity. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.06.)

While you can still decide for yourself, you stay in charge. Providers must continue to obtain your own informed consent for every decision you have the capacity to make, unless your directive sets different conditions. You can even authorize your agent to act while you retain capacity if you write that into the directive, but that is a choice, not the default. An alternate agent steps in when the primary agent is not reasonably available. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.07, subd. 1 and 145C.05, subd. 2.)

Who Decides If You Have No Directive

Here Minnesota splits from most states, and from most national form sites. Many states enact a default surrogate statute that ranks family members, such as spouse first, then adult children, then parents. Minnesota has no such list. Chapter 145C states that it creates no presumption about the intention of a person who has not executed a health care directive. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.10(e).)

In practice, when an adult without a directive loses capacity, decisions fall to informal consent practices among family and the care team, and hard cases can end with a court appointing a guardian with health care powers under Minnesota's guardianship statutes. That is a public court process, it takes time, and the court, not you, picks the decision-maker. The Minnesota guardianship planning guide covers that fallback and how to plan around it.

The planning takeaway is blunt: in Minnesota, no document can mean no clear decision-maker. Signing a health care directive is how you choose the person and the instructions yourself. Helpfully, the appointment of a health care agent also counts as a nomination of a guardian if a guardianship is ever needed, unless your directive says otherwise, so your chosen person stays first in line even in court. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.07, subd. 2.)

Changing or Revoking Your Directive

A Minnesota health care directive does not expire. It is presumed to remain in effect until you modify or revoke it, and a copy is presumed true and accurate and must be given the same effect as the original. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.10(d), (f).)

While you have capacity, you can revoke the directive in whole or in part at any time by any of these methods. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.09, subd. 1.)

Destroy it. Cancel, deface, obliterate, burn, tear, or otherwise destroy the instrument with intent to revoke, or direct someone else to destroy it in your presence.
Sign a written, dated revocation statement.
Say it in front of two witnesses. A verbal revocation works when expressed in the presence of two witnesses, who do not have to be present at the same time.
Sign a new directive. A later health care directive revokes an earlier one to the extent the two are inconsistent.

One automatic rule matters for married people and registered domestic partners. Unless your directive says otherwise, naming your spouse or registered domestic partner as agent is revoked when proceedings begin to dissolve, annul, or terminate the marriage or domestic partnership. If that happens, sign a new directive naming someone else so you are not left without an agent. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.09, subd. 2.)

A court can also declare a directive unenforceable on clear and convincing evidence that it was signed under coercion or fraudulent inducement, or if it finds the directive fails the legal-sufficiency rules. Clean signing now prevents that fight later. (Source: Minn. Stat. 145C.09, subd. 3.)

A Simple Planning Sequence

Use this order as a planning checklist, then confirm the details with a Minnesota attorney or your provider:

Decide whether you want health care instructions, a named agent, or both in one document.
Choose your health care agent and at least one alternate, ask them first, and check the eligibility rules above.
Write your care instructions, including any end-of-life wishes and any limits on your agent's powers.
Sign it the Minnesota way: in writing, dated, with your name, before a notary or two witnesses.
Give copies to your agent, your alternates, and your clinic, since Minnesota law gives a copy the same effect as the original.
Review it after any major life change, especially marriage, divorce, or a new diagnosis, and replace it if your wishes change.

Pair the directive with the rest of your plan. The Minnesota power of attorney guide covers who manages your money and property if you cannot, the Minnesota guide to avoiding probate covers passing assets without a court file, and the Minnesota will requirements guide covers what happens to property at death. For the full set of Minnesota estate and probate pages, start at the Minnesota estate directory.

This guide is general information about Minnesota health care directives. It is not legal advice. The official Minnesota Statutes control, so verify the current text of chapter 145C and the suggested form before you sign, and confirm anything that affects your situation with a licensed Minnesota attorney or your health care provider.

Sources

Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.01, Definitions (Health Care Directives). Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.01
Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.03, Requirements (legal sufficiency; ineligible agents, witnesses, and notaries). Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.03
Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.04, Executed in another state. Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.04
Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.05, Suggested form; provisions that may be included. Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.05
Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.06, When effective. Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.06
Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.07, Authority and duties of health care agent. Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.07
Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.09, Revocation of health care directive. Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.09
Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.10, Presumptions (no default surrogate presumption; effect of copies). Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.10
Title: Minn. Stat. 145C.16, Suggested form (health care directive). Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.16
Title: Minn. Stat. 145B.011, Application of chapter (living wills executed before August 1, 1998). Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145B.011
Title: Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 145C (Health Care Directives). Publisher: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Publication Date: 2025 Minnesota Statutes, accessed 2026-06-12. URL: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C