End-of-Life Checklist

Everything you need
to get in order.

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The Paperwork

Legal Documents

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These documents control what happens to your body, your money, and your medical care. Without them, strangers make those decisions.

Write or update your willUrgent
Consider a revocable living trust
Set up a durable financial power of attorneyUrgent
Set up a healthcare power of attorney / proxyUrgent
Write an advance directive / living willUrgent
Review and update all beneficiary designations
Name a guardian for minor children (if applicable)

Need Professional Help?

Some of this requires a professional.

Wills, trusts, advance directives, and estate planning all benefit from a licensed attorney. We have compiled a directory of funeral directors, grief counselors, hospice providers, and financial advisors. Sorted by state. Before a listing appears, we check the provider's phone and address against the provider's own website.

Find Help Near You →

Checklist Questions

What people ask before they start.

What is an end-of-life checklist?

It's one list of every document, decision, and piece of information your family would need if you died tomorrow: where the will is, who to call, what you own, what you owe, what you want done with your body, and how to get into your accounts. Not because the list is complicated, but because without one your family reconstructs your entire life from a shoebox and a locked phone.

Which documents does my family actually need?

The core set: a will or trust, an advance directive and health care proxy, financial and medical powers of attorney, life insurance policies, deeds and titles, beneficiary designations, and a list of accounts with a plan for how someone can access them. Add funeral wishes in writing. A surprising amount of after-death misery is just hunting for paper that was never organized.

Where should I keep everything?

Somewhere your people can reach without a court order. A fireproof box at home plus at least two humans who know it exists beats a bank safe deposit box, which can be sealed at death in some states exactly when your family needs what's inside. Wherever you keep the originals, tell your executor directly. A perfect plan nobody can find is the same as no plan.

How often should I update it?

Review on the big five: marriage or divorce, a birth, the death of someone named in your documents, a major purchase or a move to a new state, and otherwise once a year. Most updates take minutes. The expensive failures are old beneficiary designations, an ex-spouse still named on a retirement account outranks whatever your will says.

Do I need a lawyer for any of this?

Most of the checklist is paperwork and conversations you can do yourself for free. The legal documents are the exception: a will, a trust, and state-specific directives are worth doing properly, and an estate attorney is the right tool for anything beyond a simple situation. Your state guide explains what your state requires before you pay anyone.

Check your state's requirements →