A checklist for managing end-of-life matters for your loved ones
This is a checklist for those who are facing the expected death of a loved one, and have primary responsibility in the family for taking care of practical matters.
Most of this information presumes that your loved one is lucid enough to respond to your questions and make decisions.
This list is not intended to be calculating or maudlin; I think that preparing for a difficult experience makes it less difficult. When you are in the throes of grief, it may be hard to concentrate or think clearly. Having a list and organizing information in advance can help minimize your pain. Your loved one may expect death, and sorting out their affairs will help ease their mind, as well as yours.
There are plenty of resources online about personal questions to ask a loved one prior to death, to capture their personal history. Do consider that. But this list is not about that -- it is about practical considerations.
I hope this is helpful to people in times of crisis, and I welcome suggestions or corrections.
This checklist is dedicated to my father, Robert Meeker, who loved checklists (a quality I inherited from him), and was generally awesome (a quaility I could only hope in my dreams to match). I used this checklist as a way to channel my energies after his passing.
Big thanks to Cecil Webb, CPA, who had developed his own checklist and gave me some very good ideas to expand this one.