Vermont Advance Directive Requirements

Updated August 21, 2026. Quick answer: Vermont calls this an advance directive — it is the document most people mean when they say living will. You need two witnesses, aged 18 or over — witnesses only, with no notary alternative in the statute. Vermont is unusual in three ways: a health care provider may witness, since April 2024 a witness may attend remotely on stated conditions, and the State keeps a free registry that a Vermont provider must check before treating a patient who has lost capacity.

The execution box

What the statute says

The advance directive shall be dated, executed by the principal… and signed by two or more witnesses at least 18 years of age, who shall sign and affirm that the principal appeared to understand the nature of the document and to be free from duress or undue influence at the time the advance directive was signed.

— 18 V.S.A. §9703(b)(1)

Note what the witnesses are attesting to. Not merely that they watched you sign, but that you appeared to understand the document and to be free from duress or undue influence. That is a judgement about you, which is part of why the disqualification list is family-shaped.

Remote witnessing, since April 2024

Vermont permits a witness to attend remotely, and the conditions are specific: the principal and the remote witness must have been known to each other; the attestation must be based on a live, interactive audio-video connection or a telephone call; and the directive must record the remote witness’s name, contact information and relationship to the principal.

This is one of the more modern execution provisions in the country, and it matters most for exactly the people who struggle to gather two witnesses in a room — someone recently admitted to hospital, or living far from family.

The provider point cuts against the usual advice

Most states disqualify the attending physician, and general guidance often says to avoid anyone clinical. Vermont expressly permits a health care provider to witness. If you are in a hospital or a facility, the people around you may be eligible here where they would not be elsewhere — which is a practical difference, not a technicality.

Signing in a hospital or a nursing home: the explanation decides validity

This is the Vermont rule most likely to void a directive, and it is not a witnessing detail. If you are being admitted to, or already are, a resident of a nursing home or residential care facility — or a patient in a hospital — the statute does not say the directive is weaker. It says it does not work at all:

An advance directive shall not be effective if, at the time of execution, the principal is being admitted to or is a resident of a nursing home… or a residential care facility, unless one of the following individuals explains the nature and effect of an advance directive to the principal and signs a statement affirming that the individual has provided the explanation

— 18 V.S.A. §9703(d)(1); subsection (e)(1) applies the same rule to a hospital patient

So a signature, two eligible witnesses and a correct form are not enough in those settings. Someone from a closed list has to do the explaining and put their name to it. For a nursing home or residential care facility that list is an ombudsman, a recognized member of the clergy, a Vermont-licensed attorney, a Probate Division designee, an individual designated by a hospital, a mental health patient representative, a trained unpaid volunteer at the facility, or a clinician who is not employed by that facility. In a hospital the list is shorter: ombudsman, clergy, Vermont-licensed attorney, Probate Division designee, an individual the hospital has designated, or a mental health patient representative.

The explanation itself may be given remotely, by live audio-video connection or by telephone (§9703(d)(3) and (e)(2)) — and the principal, a witness and the explainer may all sign digitally (§9703(g)). The formality is real, but it does not require everyone in one room.

Family cannot witness

Spouse, parent, adult sibling, adult child, adult grandchild and the appointed agent are all excluded. So the instinct to have the family present sign it is exactly wrong. Ask who will be signing before the appointment, not during it.

If you came here looking for a Vermont living will

You are in the right place, and the mismatch is Vermont’s, not yours. The phrase “living will” does not appear anywhere in Vermont’s advance-directive chapter — not once in the whole of 18 V.S.A. chapter 231. The State says so in plain words on its own page:

An advance directive is what many people think of as a living will or a durable power of attorney for health care.

— Vermont Department of Health, Advance Directives

If you already signed something older, it probably still counts. Vermont folded the old instruments into this chapter in 2005, and kept them alive: a durable power of attorney for health care, a terminal care document, or an advance directive executed before the chapter took effect is a valid advance directive if it met the requirements in force when it was signed, or meets this chapter’s (§9703(f)). You do not need to redo a valid old document — though re-doing it on a current form is the simplest way to be sure a hospital reads it the way you meant.

The form

There is an official state form, and it is free — in fact there are three, published for the State through the Vermont Ethics Network and posted by the Department of Health: a short form (five sections), a long form (nine sections, including psychiatric treatment directions) and an agent-only form if all you want is to name someone. There are versions in more than a dozen languages and in American Sign Language. You should not have to buy one.

You are also not obliged to use the State’s paper. The Department’s own guidance is that you may “choose one from another organization of your choice” and that “Vermont law does not favor one over another.” What decides whether the document works is the execution box at the top of this page, not the letterhead.

The registry, and why it is worth the twenty minutes

Most states leave you to hand copies around and hope. Vermont built a registry into the statute: the Commissioner “shall develop and maintain a registry to which a principal may submit his or her advance directive” (§9719(b)(1)). It runs today as the Vermont Advance Directive Registry (VADR), part of the national US Advance Care Plan Registry, and the Department of Health states that “Registering a copy of your advance directive is free for all Vermont residents.”

The reason to bother is what it obliges other people to do. A Vermont provider or facility “shall not provide health care to a patient without capacity, except on an emergency basis, without first attempting to determine whether the patient has an advance directive in effect” (§9707(a)), and every provider and facility must have a protocol “to ensure that the provider or facility checks the registry at the time any individual without capacity is admitted or provided services” (§9709(b)(3)). A directive in a drawer at home relies on someone thinking to fetch it. A directive in the registry is something the hospital is required to look for.

Be clear about what registering does not do. The Department says it directly: “You are not required to register a copy of your advance directive, and your directive is valid as soon as signing and witnessing is properly completed.” Registration is distribution, not validity. Vermont updated the registry’s submission procedures on July 1, 2024, so instructions written before then may be out of date; the current forms, the registration agreement and the three submission routes are all on the Department of Health’s create and register an advance directive page.

This is the medical instrument. A financial power of attorney is a different document with different execution rules, and most people need both.

Related: all states compared · living will versus healthcare proxy.

General information drawn from state statutes and official state materials, not legal or medical advice. Advance-directive law is STATE law and the execution requirements differ in ways that decide whether a document works: some states require witnesses AND a notary, some accept either, and the list of people who may not witness varies. A directive executed the wrong way may not be honoured when it matters. Many states publish a free official form – you should not have to buy one.