MORTL · MMXXVI
You're Going
to Die.
Let's Talk
About It.
Plain answers for overwhelmed people, state-specific law guides, and checklists for before and after a death.
The someone-just-died path is free forever. No account needed.
Find Your Way In
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Where are you right now?
Choose the answer that’s closest. You can come back and choose a different path at any time.
What You Can Do on MORTL
The checklist, your state's rules, the providers, the answers.
End-of-Life Checklist
Every document, decision and account to sort out ahead of time, grouped by category. Print it, or tick it off here.
→Free Document Builders
A will, a healthcare power of attorney, a living will, a financial power of attorney, and a funeral budget. Free to build and download.
→State-by-State Guides
Probate, death certificates, advance directives, and estate taxes for all 50 states and Washington, DC, built from each state’s own sources.
→Provider Directory
Find funeral homes, grief counselors, and hospice providers near you. A listing in the MORTL directory isn’t a recommendation, endorsement, guarantee, or referral.
→Ask MORTL
Ask a question about death and get a straight answer. It comes by email if you leave one, usually within a few hours.
→Your Life in Weeks
Put in your age. The tool counts the weeks you’ve lived, puts them on one grid you can save, and asks you to pick one thing for this week.
→Free account
What a free account does.
- Keeps your checklist ticked on every device.
- One thing to do each morning, by email, if you want it.
- Your state's rules on the items that depend on them.
Free. The someone-just-died path never needs one.
MORTL Premium adds The Folder, where everything is in one packet, plus 13 more tools and family sharing. $59 once for the Folder, or $9 a month or $69 a year for all of Premium. See what Premium includes →
From the MORTL Edit
Practical reporting on death, money, and grief.
Law & PolicyDying Without a Will: What Happens to Your Estate
When someone dies without a valid will, state intestacy law controls probate assets. Learn who may inherit, which assets follow other rules, and where state-specific advice matters.
Read →
PlanningWhy a Funeral Calculator Says $16,000 When the NFDA Says $8,300
Two numbers for the same funeral. One is the funeral home's bill in 2023 dollars. The other adds the cemetery, the vault, the paperwork, and an inflation factor. How to read any funeral cost calculator before you trust it.
Read →
End-of-Life CareDNR, POLST, and the Paperwork That Decides How You Die
An advance directive tells doctors what you want. A POLST makes it a medical order. A DNR covers exactly one thing. Most people learn the difference when it's too late to matter.
Read →We built MORTL because avoiding these conversations can leave people without information, instructions, or support when they need it.
Who's Behind This
One owner. Built from primary sources. Monitored every 30 days.
MORTL is owned and edited by Stephanie Werner, its CEO, founder, and editor. No investors, no parent company, no content farm. Every state guide is built from primary sources such as state statutes, court rules, and official government resources. Automated change monitoring runs every 30 days. Each state guide receives a source-level review at least annually and sooner when an official change or credible correction is identified.
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Quick Answers
Common questions, answered.
What is MORTL?
MORTL is an independent publisher that helps people figure out what to do before and after a death. It gives adults plain-English answers, cited state-law guides, situation-based checklists, and planning tools, with optional saved features for handing a plan to family. MORTL isn’t a law firm, medical provider, funeral home, or financial institution.
What does MORTL cover?
MORTL covers the full spectrum of death-related topics: writing a will, probate law by state, advance directives and healthcare proxies, funeral and cremation planning, grief and bereavement, digital legacy and what happens to your accounts after death, estate taxes, organ donation, death with dignity laws, and talking to children about death. MORTL publishes state-specific legal guides for all 50 US states and Washington DC.
What is an advance directive?
An advance directive is a legal document that specifies your healthcare wishes if you become unable to communicate. It typically includes a living will (what treatments you want or don't want) and a healthcare proxy or durable power of attorney for healthcare (who can make decisions for you). Every US state has its own official advance directive form. MORTL provides links to the official form for 50 states and Washington DC.
What is probate and when is it required?
Probate is a court-supervised process for administering assets left in a deceased person's name, resolving valid claims, and making distributions. Whether court administration is required depends on state law, the assets involved, ownership, beneficiary designations, and available affidavit or simplified procedures. Assets properly held in a trust, survivorship property, and accounts with valid beneficiary designations commonly pass outside probate, subject to state rules.
How much does a funeral cost in the United States?
According to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), the median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial in the United States is approximately $8,300 (2023 data). The median cost of a funeral with cremation is approximately $6,280. Costs vary significantly by region and funeral home. The FTC Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to provide itemized price lists upon request.
What happens to your digital accounts when you die?
What happens to your digital accounts after death depends on the platform and whether you’ve designated a legacy contact or digital executor. Facebook and Instagram allow memorialization or account removal. Google has an Inactive Account Manager. Apple has a Digital Legacy feature. Most states have adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which gives executors limited access to digital assets. Without planning, most accounts are inaccessible to family members.
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