Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: Montana’s living will sits in the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. It needs two witnesses and no notary, the statutory form is optional, and Montana lets you revoke it even if you have lost capacity — which almost no other legal instrument allows.
What makes it valid
The declaration must be signed by the declarant or another at the declarant’s direction and must be witnessed by two individuals. A health care provider may presume, in the absence of actual notice to the contrary, that the declaration complies with this chapter and is valid.
— Mont. Code Ann. Title 50 ch. 9 (Rights of the Terminally Ill Act)
Two witnesses. No notary. The word “notary” does not appear anywhere in the chapter. Montana also does not restrict who may witness in the section that creates the declaration, which is unusual — many states disqualify relatives, heirs and attending staff.
Note the second sentence too. A provider may presume the declaration is valid absent actual notice otherwise. That protects the document in practice: a hospital does not have to satisfy itself of every formality before honouring it.
The form is optional
Section 50-9-103 sets out a declaration form and says it “may but need not be in the following form.” Montana’s form is a floor, not a requirement. A declaration that says what you want in your own words, signed and witnessed by two people, is within the statute.
Revocation without regard to capacity — the unusual part
A declarant may revoke a declaration at any time and in any manner, without regard to mental or physical condition. A revocation is effective upon its communication to the attending physician, attending advanced practice registered nurse, or other health care provider by the declarant or a witness to the revocation.
— Mont. Code Ann. Title 50 ch. 9 (Rights of the Terminally Ill Act)
This is worth reading twice. Making a valid declaration requires capacity. Revoking one, in Montana, does not. Someone who could no longer sign a new declaration can still withdraw the old one, in any manner, and it takes effect as soon as it reaches the treating clinician.
The practical consequence: a Montana declaration is never quietly self-executing. If the person says they have changed their mind, that is a revocation, whatever their diagnosis, and whoever hears it should tell the clinician — the statute expressly allows a witness to the revocation to communicate it.
Nurses stand alongside physicians throughout
The chapter names the attending advanced practice registered nurse beside the attending physician in provision after provision. In a state with wide rural areas where the senior clinician present may not be a physician, that matters — the declaration does not stall waiting for one.
Montana has a “living will protocol” concept
Section 50-9-102 defines a living will protocol as a locally developed, communitywide arrangement. Montana contemplates communities agreeing local procedures for honouring these documents — a structure most states do not have, and worth asking your own provider about.
This is the medical instrument, not the financial one
A declaration under this chapter governs life-sustaining treatment when you are terminally ill. It does not let anyone manage your money, sell property or deal with your bank. That is a financial power of attorney, a separate document under different Montana law.
What could not be verified
We read 50-9-102 to 50-9-105 and 50-9-204 from the Montana Code Annotated 2025. We have not reproduced the immunities provisions, the rules on transfer of patients, the effect on insurance, or the Health Care Declaration Registry in part 5 — Montana operates a registry, and whether to file with it is a question this page does not answer. We also did not verify whether any other section of Montana law disqualifies particular witnesses. This is the statute, not legal advice.
Source note. Read from https://archive.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0090/parts_index.html on 2026-08-04, section by section. This jurisdiction had been recorded in our own notes as unreachable; that was wrong, and the record has been corrected.
Related: advance directive requirements by state · power of attorney requirements by state.
General information drawn from state statutes and official state or court forms, not legal advice. These instruments are governed by the law of the state where the property sits or the document is signed, and formalities differ from state to state — execution, witnessing and recording requirements are the parts that void a document when they are missed. Your own state’s current statute governs.