A power of attorney for property, often called a financial power of attorney, names someone to manage your money and your affairs. The person you choose, called your agent, can pay your bills, handle your bank accounts and take care of the everyday business of your life when you cannot. In Illinois, the document can be written to take effect right away, or only when a doctor certifies that you cannot manage your own affairs. It can also be written to be durable, which means it keeps working after you lose the ability to act for yourself. That word matters. A power of attorney that is not durable stops at exactly the moment you need it most.

​A healthcare power of attorney, which many people call a medical power of attorney, names the person who talks with your doctors and makes medical decisions when you cannot speak for yourself. Illinois keeps a default list of who gets asked when no document exists, and it is a list of relatives: a spouse, then adult children, then parents and so on. If the person you trust most is not on that list, the document is the only thing that puts them there. Without one, the people who love you can be left outside the conversation, and your family can be left guessing at what you would have wanted.

A living will is a different kind of document. Instead of naming a person, it states your own wishes about life-sustaining treatment if you are terminally ill or permanently unconscious and cannot say them yourself. In Illinois, a living will and a healthcare power of attorney work side by side: the living will is your voice about treatment at the end of life, and your agent is your voice about everything else. Together with the powers of attorney, these documents are what Illinois calls your advance directives. They are the complete set of instructions for the worst day, written on a day when everything is fine.