Feasibility study for setting up a central depository to store & retrieve the three instruments of peace in Hong Kong

The “Three Instruments of Peace” (平安三寶) are the cornerstone documents for thoughtful life and end-of-life planning in Hong Kong: the Will, which directs how one’s estate is handled after death; the Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA), which appoints a trusted person to manage financial affairs after loss of mental capacity; and the Advance Medical Directive (AMD), which records one’s choices about refusing life-sustaining treatments in specific clinical situations. Their shared purpose is to safeguard autonomy, reduce family conflict, and give professionals clear, lawful guidance when decisions must be made quickly.

Yet these documents only work if they can be found and verified at the critical moment. In Hong Kong practice, the original paper often carries the legal force, and when originals are misplaced, hidden in private drawers, or simply unknown to family members or clinicians, the maker’s wishes may be delayed or even go unhonoured.

This report presents a qualitative feasibility study on setting up a central depository for the Three Instruments of Peace in Hong Kong. Between December 2024 and April 2025, we conducted 55 in-depth interviews across patient groups, family carers, legal and medical professionals, social workers, legislators, civil servants, bankers, and IT experts. We mapped where the current system fails:  public awareness, procedural opacity, and especially the discoverability and legal finality of documents and assessed design options from a minimal metadata registry to digital copies, together with governance models that balance public accountability and operational agility.

Our proposal is a phased, voluntary system that improves document discovery for Wills and offers carefully scoped backup for EPAs and AMDs, with user support and professional navigation built in, and with a pathway to statutory recognition once evidence and trust are established.