NPR's Life Kit: End-of-Life Planning a "Lifetime Gift" To Your Loved Ones

NPR's Life Kit always features many useful resources, but we couldn't agree more with the timeliness and importance of their recent offering "End-of-Life Planning is a "Lifetime Gift" to Your Loved Ones".

Author Kavitha Cardoza points out how difficult it is for many people to talk about, and plan for, death. 

"That's a big mistake, because if you don't have an end-of-life plan, your state's laws decide who gets everything you own. A doctor you've never met could decide how you spend your last moments, and your loved ones could be saddled with untangling an expensive legal mess after you die".

Cardoza presents a list of six tasks with input and detail from additional experts. The recommendations are offered not only to make the end of your life smoother, more manageable, and adherent to your own choices, but also to make the process and the time after you are gone much easier for your loved ones to navigate. 

Her recommendations are in no way offered as legal or medical advice, but are presented in simple steps to get you started.

• Name an executor - the importance of a will, whether or not you need a lawyer, what your executor is responsible for
• Take an inventory - financial assets, items of sentimental value, children & guardianship, pets, digital accounts & more
• Think about health care decisions - decisions to make before you die - advance directives, medical power of attorney, living wills
• Name a medical proxy - choosing a health care agent who can make medical decisions for you if you are unable to
• Fill out a living will - your personal choices about what kind of care you want to receive
• Don't forget the emotional and spiritual aspects of death - personal choices and priorities, conversations about life & death, unfinished business, favorite memories, how you want to be remembered

To read the article, or listen to the audio, click here: NPR Life Kit: End-of-Life Planning is a "Lifetime Gift" to your Loved Ones