Journal topic
The paperwork side of love: choosing an executor, telling family where documents are, and calm checklists for the first weeks after a death.
9 guides
Practical11 min read
To write down your funeral wishes, decide on burial or cremation, the kind of service, music and readings, who should be told, a rough budget and your organ donation choice, then put it on one or two pages. Give a copy to the people who will arrange the funeral now, because a will is often read after the funeral has already happened.
Practical9 min read
A letter of wishes is a private, usually non-binding letter that sits alongside your will and tells your executors, trustees or guardians how you'd like things handled: who should get personal items, how a trust should be used, how your children should be raised. In the US the closest equivalent is often called a letter of instruction.
Practical10 min read
A good living alone safety plan has two speeds. For emergencies, use fast tools: a daily text with a buddy, a neighbour with a key, a medical alert device or phone emergency features, and a who-to-call note on the fridge. For the slower question of what your family should receive if you die, a dead man's switch on a weekly or monthly rhythm can hold letters, including a note of where your documents are, but it is never an emergency service.
Practical10 min read
The safest way to pass on passwords is not to hand over a list but to leave one way in: set up emergency access or a recovery kit for your password manager, keep a sealed paper note saying where it is, and tell your executor how to find it. Don't write passwords into your will, which can become a public document.
Practical9 min read
If you die without a plan, your pet usually passes with the rest of your belongings, and whoever deals with your estate decides what happens to them. A pet care plan fixes that: name a carer and a backup, write a care sheet, leave money for their care through your will or a pet trust, and carry a wallet card so someone knows there's an animal at home.
Practical8 min read
Photos in iCloud or Google Photos stay locked behind your account when you die unless you plan ahead. Share a library with family now, add Apple's Legacy Contact or Google's Inactive Account Manager, and keep a labelled 'best of' copy on a drive someone can find. Curating and naming the people in them matters as much as access.
Practical8 min read
In the first 48 hours, get a medical certificate, tell close family, contact a funeral director, look for a will and secure the home. In the first week, register the death or order death certificates and start notifying people; in the first month, deal with banks, insurers, subscriptions, online accounts and probate.
Practical6 min read
A good executor is organised, calm, trusted by your family, likely to outlive you, and has actually agreed to do it. Ask them in person, give them time to think, and leave them a clear record of where your will, accounts and wishes are.
Practical7 min read
Keep originals of your will, deeds and certificates somewhere safe and known, list your banks, pensions, insurers and key contacts in one place, and tell your executor and one backup person where that list lives, without handing over passwords before they are needed.
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