The Ultimate End of Life Planner

The easiest way to start end-of-life planning is to work from a single guided planner instead of a blank page — it turns an overwhelming subject into a short list of prompts. Begin with the essentials families scramble for most: where your important documents live, your accounts and insurance, your medical wishes, and who to contact. You don't have to finish in one sitting; filling in a few pages at a time is what makes it far less stressful than trying to hold it all in your head.

It's a guided organizer that gathers, in one place, everything your family would need to find and settle after you're gone — your key people, where your documents live, your accounts and property, and your medical and final wishes. The End of Life Planner adds a First Steps guide that walks your family through the actual handoff, with every task cross-referenced to the page that answers it.

A will is a legal document that says who inherits what; this planner is the practical map your family uses to act on it. It tells them where the will is, who to call, which accounts exist, and what you wanted — the day-to-day details a will doesn't capture. It complements a will, trust, and advance directive; it does not replace them, and it isn't legal advice.

Yes — by design. The planner records where things are and who to call, never passwords, PINs, Social Security numbers, or full account numbers. That makes it genuinely useful to the people you trust and useless to anyone who shouldn't have it, even if the book is ever misplaced. Keep it somewhere your executor or a close family member knows to look.

Anyone who wants to spare their family a stressful guessing game — not just older adults. It's written in plain English for couples, solo households, and adult children helping a parent get organized. You can complete it alone or together, a few pages at a time.

Yes. It's a paperback guided organizer you fill in by hand — part planner, part journal, with prompts, labeled spaces, and room for legacy letters in your own words. Order the paperback and we mail it to you, or download the PDF and start tonight. Published under the pen name M. E. Hart as part of the Retirement In Order series.

Yes — the same planner, as an instant download in the Retirement In Order shop. It is the full 52-page edition: Part One's 21 fill-in sections and Part Two's 20-page executor guide, exactly as they appear in the paperback. Nothing is abridged. The difference is the object, not the contents — print the PDF at home, or as many single pages as you like whenever something changes, versus a bound book that arrives ready to write in and sits somewhere your family will actually find it.

Yes, and it's half the book. Part Two is 20 pages written to whoever is in charge: week one (get the original will, order death certificates, secure the home, tell the bank but don't empty accounts), weeks two to four (probate, filing the will, opening an estate account), days 30 to 90, and everything due before the first anniversary. It also covers who needs a certified death certificate and how many to order, which benefits have to be claimed, which have to be stopped and in what order, and how to hand off or memorialize a digital life. Every step points to the page where the answer is written down. It's an order of operations, not legal advice.