Treatment wishes stand apart from the will

Treatment wishes are about life. They belong with the person and with the doctor, at the moment a decision about care has to be taken. A written wish, discussed with the family doctor, is something other than a line in an estate. In the life file you note whether there is an advance directive (wilsverklaring) and where it lies. That can be not yet, discussed orally, or set down in writing. The text of the wish itself can stay with the doctor. The file does not have to take over the medical decision. It only points to where the paper is, and who the family doctor is.

A will speaks after death. It divides what someone leaves, within the limits of inheritance law, and it becomes relevant only once the person has died. A treatment wish you put into a will comes too late for the doctor who has to act during an admission. At the bedside the doctor does not read a last will (uiterste wil). So put the wish in the place where care can find it, and put only the pointer in the life file. Anyone who mixes the documents up has, after death, a text that was not there during life at the moment it was needed.

In the file go the name of the family doctor and the place of the paper. A folder at home, a safe at the notary or the file of the practice: name the place concretely. Do not copy out the medical history. A diagnosis is not a treatment wish, and a treatment wish is not an instruction to the heirs. During life the trusted person may read what you switch on, so that person can point the family doctor to the paper. That access is help during life. It does not make the trusted person a doctor and not an executor. Also add the telephone number of the practice, and replace it if the doctor stops.

After the death the treatment wish remains a fact from life, not an item in the estate inventory. Heirs do not have to divide it and do not have to value it. It can explain why certain care was given or why a treatment was left undone. That is context, not an asset. Do not put it among the bank accounts. In the conversion to an estate the pointer stays if that is still useful for the administration of the health insurer. It does not belong in the inheritance tax indication. The table for 2026 has nothing to do with an advance directive (wilsverklaring). Do not hang a euro amount on a wish.

Treatment wishes belong with the person and the doctor for as long as someone is alive. A will settles what happens to the estate after death. The life file can keep where the written wish lies, and who the family doctor is. It does not replace the conversation with the doctor and it is not a last will (uiterste wil). This is not legal advice and not tax advice. Whether an advance directive (wilsverklaring) is valid in a particular case, and whether a doctor follows it, is assessed by the doctor and, where the form is concerned, by someone who can read the text legally. This file does not make that judgment.