End-of-Life Planning Checklist: Get Your Affairs in Order

End-of-life planning comes down to six jobs: record your health care wishes and name someone to speak for you, make a will, update your beneficiaries, set up your digital accounts, write down your funeral wishes, and make sure the right people know where everything is. You can start this week. An advance directive needs no lawyer, but a will has to meet your state's signing rules.

What should an end-of-life checklist include?

1. Health care: choose an agent and write down your wishes

An advance directive is an umbrella term for the documents that say how you want to be treated and who speaks for you. CaringInfo says it usually includes a health care power of attorney, which names your agent, and states your wishes about treatment. You do not need a lawyer, and it becomes valid when you sign it in front of the required witnesses. Laws vary by state, so use your state's form.

Choose an agent who knows you well, is calm in a crisis, understands how you would decide, is not afraid to ask doctors questions, and can talk with your family. Talk through your values with them in depth before you sign.

Two points surprise people:

• Emergency medical technicians cannot honor an advance directive. CaringInfo says they can honor a DNR order or a POLST, which are medical orders signed by a clinician. If you have a serious illness, ask your doctor whether one fits.
• Medicare may cover the conversation. Part B covers voluntary advance care planning as part of the "Welcome to Medicare" and yearly wellness visits, and you pay nothing if your provider accepts assignment.

See advance directive vs living will, DNR orders explained and hospice care explained.

2. Will and executor: decide who gets what and who is in charge

If you die without a valid will, Cornell's Legal Information Institute explains that the intestacy laws of your state decide how your assets are distributed, and those rules vary widely. A will lets you choose. It is also where you name an executor, the person who handles your estate.

Choose an executor who is organized and comfortable with paperwork, not just the person you would feel bad leaving out. Ask them first. If you have children under 18, ask an attorney in your state how to name a guardian.

State signing rules differ on witnesses and notarization. A simple will can be done online. Our Simple Will Maker is not open yet while a lawyer reviews the template and each state's signing rules, but you can join its waitlist. For a larger estate, a blended family or a business, talk to an estate planning attorney. See living trust vs will and how to find out if a will exists.

3. Accounts and beneficiaries: check the forms that override your will

Many assets skip your will entirely. Cornell lists living trusts, joint ownership with right of survivorship, payable-on-death accounts, beneficiary designations on retirement plans, annuities and life insurance policies, and transfer-on-death security registrations as nonprobate transfers. These pass without a probate proceeding, so your will generally does not control them. The form on file does.

Make a simple inventory: bank and investment accounts, retirement accounts, insurance, property, debts, and who is named on each. Then check every beneficiary form. Update them after a marriage, divorce, birth or death. Our guides on updating beneficiaries, payable-on-death accounts, joint ownership and an estate inventory go further.

On taxes, the IRS says a 2025 law raised the federal estate tax basic exclusion amount to $15,000,000 for 2026. Federal estate tax applies only to estates above the exemption. State taxes are separate, and tax rules change, so ask a tax professional if your estate is large.

4. Digital life: leave a way in

Online accounts have their own rules, and your will may not be enough. Set up the tools the companies offer:

• Apple. You can name a Legacy Contact. Apple's support page describes the access key you create and the death certificate your contact will need to request access.
• Google. Inactive Account Manager lets you share data with up to 10 people after your account has been inactive for the period you choose.
• Other accounts. Keep a list of accounts and how to reach them, in a place your executor can open. Do not rely on memory.

Our guides on apple legacy contact, password management after death and closing email accounts explain how each piece works.

5. Funeral wishes: write them down and name someone to carry them out

The Funeral Consumers Alliance says it is better to have your wishes in writing than not at all, and that courts routinely support all but the most outrageous ones. A will is usually not read until services are well under way or finished, so put your wishes in a separate dated document, have it witnessed or notarized, and make sure your survivors receive a copy.

Name a funeral representative if you want to decide who is in charge. The Funeral Consumers Alliance says the power to name a designated agent is honored in all states. Our guide to appointing a funeral representative shows how, and who arranges a funeral explains what happens if you do not.

Consider these decisions:

• burial, cremation or another method (see cremation vs burial cost and green burial)
• the type of service and who leads it
• body or organ donation (see body donation programs)
• how it will be paid. The Funeral Consumers Alliance says it is usually not wise to pay ahead, so consider setting money aside instead. See prepaid plans and funeral insurance.

Under the FTC Funeral Rule, your family can get price information by phone, receive a General Price List and choose only the items it wants. Telling them helps. See telling your family your funeral wishes.

6. Tell people and store your documents where they can be found

CaringInfo says an advance directive is only as good as its availability when needed. Keep documents portable, quick to reach, and safe from fire, flood and theft. Give copies to your health care agent, your doctor and close family, and bring one to the hospital. Do not keep your only advance directive in a safe deposit box, since nobody may be able to get in during an emergency.

Write a one-page letter of instruction that is not a legal document: where the documents are, which accounts exist, who to call, and what you want for pets and keepsakes. Our document locator checklist lists what to include, and the Family Legacy Binder keeps it in one place.

How often should you review it?

Advance directives do not expire, CaringInfo says, but you should review them periodically. A new directive invalidates the previous one, so destroy old copies and give the new version to everyone who had the old one. Review your will, beneficiaries and funeral wishes after a marriage, divorce, birth, death, move to another state, or health change.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for a diagnosis. Capacity matters when you sign, so plan while you are well.
• Naming no agent, or the wrong one. Choose on ability and willingness, not birth order.
• Forgetting beneficiary forms. They usually decide who gets those accounts, whatever your will says.
• Keeping wishes only in your head. A relative with legal authority may decide differently.
• Storing papers where nobody can reach them. Tell your agent and executor where they are.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. For documents with real stakes, ask a lawyer in your state.

What to do next

1. This week, choose your health care agent and a backup, and ask them.
2. Get your state's advance directive form and sign it with the right witnesses.
3. Check beneficiary forms on every account, and book a lawyer if you need a will.
4. Write down your funeral wishes and who should carry them out, then tell your family where the papers are.