Advance Directives
The complete plan, on one page
Everything across this site reduces to a fairly short list. This is that list, in the order worth doing it.
Topic
planning
Every Before Last Wish article tagged planning — 15 pieces across 5 sections.
Digital Legacy
A digital estate checklist
The digital material across this site, condensed into a sequence you can work through in an evening.
Wills & Estates
The annual review: half an hour, once a year
Plans go out of date silently. A short annual check catches the things that have changed and prevents most of the problems on this site.
Advance Directives
Living with a terminal diagnosis: the practical work
There is a period after a terminal diagnosis in which a great deal can be arranged, and using it well makes the following months substantially easier for everyone.
Advance Directives
Where do you want to be at the end
Most people express a preference to die at home. A substantial proportion die in hospital. The gap has identifiable causes and several of them are addressable.
Advance Directives
Assisted dying: where the law stands and what it means practically
A small and growing number of jurisdictions permit some form of medically assisted death. The frameworks differ substantially and the practical implications are frequently misunderstood.
Family Conversations
Second marriages, stepchildren and competing claims
Blended families are common and the default legal arrangements were designed for a different structure, which produces predictable and avoidable conflict.
Digital Legacy
Making a digital inventory
The single most useful digital preparation is a list of what exists. It contains no passwords, takes an evening, and turns an impossible task into a manageable one.
Family Conversations
Talking to parents about money
The financial conversation is harder than the medical one, because it touches independence, inheritance and the suspicion that you are asking for your own reasons.
Advance Directives
Planning ahead after a dementia diagnosis
A diagnosis creates a window in which decisions can still be made by the person themselves, and that window closes gradually and irreversibly.
Funeral Planning
Planning your own funeral: what to write down
Recording what you want costs nothing, takes an hour, and removes the single largest source of stress and disagreement for the people arranging it.
Advance Directives
Power of attorney for finances: the document to do first
A power of attorney only works if it is made while the person still has capacity, which means the moment people realise they need one is frequently the moment it becomes impossible.
Wills & Estates
Estate and inheritance tax: the general shape
Systems differ enormously and a few structural features recur. Knowing which type of system applies to you determines what planning is even relevant.
Advance Directives
Where to keep the documents so they are actually found
A well-drafted document that nobody can locate at the moment it is needed is the most common failure in end-of-life planning, and it is entirely preventable.
Funeral Planning
What a funeral actually costs, and where the money goes
Funeral pricing is opaque by design, decisions are made by grieving people under time pressure, and the difference between the cheapest and most expensive versions of the same service is enormous.