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Plan Ahead
Choose your situation and state. MORTL builds a practical action list for legal documents, medical wishes, accounts, care, and family instructions.
Want the full document-by-document list? Open the complete end-of-life planning checklist →
This page assumes you have time. I'm already dying →
The short answer
Planning ahead means deciding five things while it's easy: who gets what (the will), who decides if you can't (the directive and power of attorney), what happens to the kids, what you want at the end, and where your family finds it all. The planner below builds your action list for your situation and your state.
Reviewed August 2026
Parents: start with the three decisions →Test the plan you already have →
Optional: Your State
Select your state to get state-specific law notes embedded in your action plan.
What describes your situation?
Not sure where to start?
31 items across 5 categories. Covers everything from legal documents to digital accounts. Progress saves automatically.
Choose a planning task
These pages put the free first step, state-law references, and the relevant planning tools in one place.
Start with the legal effect of a will and the signing rules that make it valid where you live.
Put your care choices in the right documents, name the person who can speak for you, and make sure the people involved can find the signed copies.
Make the accounts, debts, beneficiaries, insurance, and important contacts easier for the person who may eventually handle them.
Decide what matters to you, understand your consumer rights, and record enough detail for someone else to carry out the plan.
You can make the process easier without making the decisions for them. Start with permission, let their choices lead, and help make the final information usable.
From The MORTL Edit
The tools
Before You Start
A will directs the distribution of probate assets after death and can nominate a personal representative and guardian. A living will records treatment preferences for a time when you're alive but can't make or communicate medical decisions. They do different jobs. People can consider one or both based on their circumstances, using the signing rules and forms required by their state.
The names and forms vary by state. An advance directive can record treatment preferences and may include an appointment of a healthcare agent. A healthcare proxy or medical power of attorney can name an agent for decisions you can't make or communicate. A financial power of attorney can grant specified authority over money and property during life. These powers generally end at death, when authority over estate property depends on ownership, beneficiary documents, trusts, and appointment of a personal representative.
Planning isn't only about age or wealth. It gives the people you trust instructions and a place to start. Empathy's 2025 Grief Tax report says executors took an average of 20 months to settle affairs. A basic inventory, named decision-makers, and current documents can reduce uncertainty even when a complete plan takes longer than an afternoon.
If you die without a valid will, state intestacy law determines who receives probate assets. A court may appoint a personal representative and, if no parent can serve, may appoint a guardian for minor children under the state's best-interest standard. Assets with valid beneficiary designations or survivorship ownership may pass outside probate. A will and current account records can document your choices, but the exact effect depends on state law and the assets involved.
Start with the checklist →The Death Dispatch
Weekly plain-English guidance on wills, estate planning, advance directives, and the conversations you keep putting off.