Share Your Personal Preferences

Healthcare Preferences

  • Health Insurance is designed to put a limit on the amount you are required to pay out for medical expenses, and is especially valuable when you have large medical bills.
  • Hospice Care provides compassionate physical and emotional assistance to people who are in the last six months of their life, and offers support to their family members and caregivers.
  • Long-Term Care Insurance can help pay for the cost of an assisted living facility, or for caregivers who provide in-home care.

Print your Healthcare Preferences Worksheet »

Financial Preferences

  • Direct Transfer of Assets allows you to distribute bank and brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, and real estate independently of a Will or Living Trust.
  • Distribution of Personal Belongings can be planned in advance with your family members. It will be very helpful for everyone to know who will receive specific personal belongings when you die.

Print your Financial Preferences Worksheet »

Care of the Body Preferences

  • Organ, Tissue, and Whole Body Donation: Organ donors make specific organs and tissues available for transplants. Whole body donations can be made to a medical school or research institution.
  • Burial or Cremation: Burial involves placing the body in a cemetery plot or mausoleum crypt. Cremation burns the body, reducing it to ash and bones.
  • Final Location of the Body: The body or cremains can be placed in a cemetery plot, mausoleum crypt or family crypt. Cremains can go in a columbarium niche, garden niche, be kept or scattered.

Print your Care of the Body Worksheet »

Service and Obituary Preferences

  • Visitation and Viewing: Visitation is a gathering of friends and family after a death. At a viewing or wake, visitors can see and touch the body of the person who died.
  • Funeral or Memorial Service: The body and casket are present at a funeral service, while a memorial service is held without the body present.
  • An Obituary is a published death notice with a short summary of a person’s life, plus a list of family members, both living and deceased.

Print your Service and Obituary Worksheet (PDF) »

Congratulations!

You’ve given the gift of end-of-life planning. Now it’s time to get on with living a full and rewarding life, knowing that your family will know what to do at the end of your life. You may even wish to help a friend or family member with their planning. To get started, click here to print a full set of DeathWise Worksheets.

Start the Conversation »
Take Care of the Essentials »