Your living will and durable power of attorney for health care are important legal documents. Keep your signed original documents in a secure, but accessible, place. Do not put the originals in your safe-deposit box or in another location from which it would be difficult for you or your health-care agent to retrieve them at whatever time they might be needed.

Give photocopies of the signed originals to whomever you have designated to carry out your wishes. In addition to your health-care agent and alternate agent(s), the recipients of these copies should include your doctor(s), key family members and clergy and may even include close friends or others who might become involved in your health care and medical treatment. It's wise to keep a copy in your vehicles or to carry a wallet card that refers to the documents' existence and location and names your health-care agent(s). If you enter a hospital, nursing home or hospice, ask that photocopies be filed with your medical records.

In case you decide to make changes in your advance directives, keep a list of who has current copies so that you can provide them with updated versions.