End of Life Planning Checklist: 40 Things to Sort Out

Picture two sisters sitting on the floor of their mother's spare room, surrounded by shoeboxes. One box holds bank statements going back to 1998. Another holds birthday cards, a premium bond certificate and a single key with no label. Their mother died eight days ago. The funeral director needs to know whether she wanted to be buried or cremated, the bank wants a death certificate and an account number, and nobody can remember the name of the pension company.

None of this is unusual. Their mother was organised in her own way. She just never wrote any of it down in one place, because nobody ever handed her a list.

This article is that list. Around 170,000 people die around the world every day, which you can watch happening on our live counter, and about 1,800 of them are in the UK. For most of their families, the hardest practical part is not grief itself but searching. A good end of life plan removes the searching. Below is a checklist of the things worth sorting out, grouped by category, followed by a realistic timeline so you can finish it in about a month without it taking over your life.

Why a checklist works better than good intentions

Most people agree that planning ahead is sensible. Far fewer actually do it. The Money and Pensions Service reported in January 2025 that about 56% of UK adults have no will, and wills are the part people talk about most. Funeral wishes, passwords and pension details are written down even less often.

The problem is rarely laziness. It is that "sort out my affairs" is a vague, slightly frightening task with no obvious first step. A checklist turns it into small, finite jobs that each take ten to thirty minutes.

Vague intention	Checklist version
"I should sort out a will"	Book a solicitor or will writer, list assets, choose two executors
"My family knows what I want"	Write funeral wishes on one page and tell one person where it is
"It's all in my emails somewhere"	List every bank, pension and insurer with a reference number
"They'll figure out my phone"	Record where your passcode hint is kept and set up legacy contacts
"I'll deal with care later"	Make a Lasting Power of Attorney while you are well

The core checklist: legal documents

These are the documents with legal force. They matter most, so they come first. If you only do one section of this checklist, do this one.

Task	Why it matters	Where to start
Make a will	Decides who inherits and who handles your estate	How to write a will in the UK
Choose executors and ask them	They will do the paperwork, so they should agree first	Pick two people you trust
Make a Lasting Power of Attorney (property and financial)	Lets someone manage money if you lose capacity	LPAs explained
Make an LPA (health and welfare)	Lets someone make care decisions for you	Same as above
Consider an advance decision	Records treatments you would refuse	Advance decisions explained
Name guardians for children under 18	Avoids courts deciding who raises them	Include in your will
Check pension nomination forms	Many pensions ignore your will and follow the nomination	Log in to each pension provider
Check life insurance is written in trust	Can speed up payout and keep it outside the estate	Ask your insurer

Without a will, your estate follows the intestacy rules, which ignore unmarried partners entirely. We cover exactly who gets what in what happens if you die without a will.

Money and accounts

Your executors cannot close accounts they do not know exist. The single most useful money task is a plain list: every account, who it is with and roughly what it is for. You do not need balances, and you should never write down passwords or PINs on the same list.

Item to list	Details worth recording	Leave out
Current and savings accounts	Bank name, sort code, last four digits of account number	PINs, online banking passwords
ISAs, premium bonds, shares	Provider and reference number	Login details
Workplace and private pensions	Provider, employer, policy number
Life insurance and death-in-service	Insurer, policy number, beneficiary
Mortgage, loans, credit cards	Lender and account reference	Card numbers in full
Regular bills and subscriptions	Supplier and how it is paid
Property	Address, whether owned jointly, where the deeds are
Valuables	Jewellery, art, vehicles, where documents are kept

This list does two jobs. It helps your executor through probate, and it helps them work out what is owed, which we explain in what happens to your debts when you die. If your estate might be large, read inheritance tax explained too, because a few choices made now can save your family real money later.

Funeral wishes

Families often find funeral decisions the most stressful part of the first week, because every choice feels like a test of how well they knew the person. A single page of wishes takes that weight away.

Decision	Options to consider	Note it down
Burial or cremation	Traditional burial, cremation, direct cremation, natural burial	Your preference and any strong "no"
Type of service	Religious, humanist, celebrant-led, no service	Who you would like to lead it
Music and readings	Songs, poems, hymns	Titles and artists
Where	Church, crematorium, outdoors, at home	Any place that matters to you
Flowers or donations	Flowers, charity collection, both	Charity name
Budget	Simple, moderate, no limit	Whether a funeral plan or savings exist
Body donation or organ donation	Register on the NHS Organ Donor Register	Tell your family your decision

Funerals in the UK are expensive, and costs vary widely by type. Our breakdown of how much a funeral costs shows the ranges, and how to plan your own funeral walks through each decision step by step.

Digital life

Your phone, email and social media accounts are now part of your estate in practical terms, even if most have little cash value. They hold photos, contacts and, increasingly, the only record of bills and subscriptions.

Task	How
Set an Apple Legacy Contact	Settings, your name, Sign-In and Security, Legacy Contact
Set up Google Inactive Account Manager	Google Account, Data and privacy, Make a plan for your digital legacy
Choose Facebook memorialisation	Settings, Memorialisation settings, choose a legacy contact
Note where your password manager is	Record the service name and how your executor can request access
List email accounts	Your main email is the key that unlocks most other accounts
Decide what happens to photos	Name who should get copies

The rules differ by platform, and some accounts close completely. Our guide to what happens to your social media when you die goes platform by platform.

Care, health and the end of life itself

This is the part people avoid most, and the part families most wish had been discussed. You do not need to plan every detail of your final weeks, but a few preferences make a real difference.

Question	Why it helps
Where would you prefer to die?	Home, hospice or hospital all need different arrangements
Who should be told if you are seriously ill?	Saves your family making that list in a crisis
Do you want to be resuscitated in all circumstances?	Discuss a DNACPR decision with your GP if relevant
Any religious or cultural needs at the end?	Last rites, washing, timing of burial
What matters most to you about comfort?	Music, visitors, pets, pain relief

Most people say they would prefer to die at home, but many do not. We look at the numbers in where do most people die, and what happens in the last days of life explains what families can expect.

Home, people and personal things

The final group is the one that is easiest to forget, because it feels too ordinary to write down.

• Who looks after pets, and is there money set aside for them?
• Who has spare keys to your home and car?
• Where are the stopcock, fuse box and boiler manual?
• Who should be told about your death: friends, clubs, old colleagues, neighbours?
• Are there letters, recordings or messages you would like left for people?
• What should happen to sentimental items that have no cash value?

A gentle way to deal with possessions is Swedish death cleaning, which is about decluttering slowly so your family is not left with a house full of decisions.

A one-month timeline

Trying to do everything in a weekend usually means doing nothing. Spread across four weeks, each step takes an evening or two.

Week	Focus	Tasks	Time needed
Week 1	People and documents	Choose executors, book will appointment, check pension nominations	2 to 3 hours
Week 2	Money	Write the account list, check life insurance, note debts	2 hours
Week 3	Wishes	Funeral wishes page, care preferences, organ donation decision	1 to 2 hours
Week 4	Digital and home	Legacy contacts, password manager note, pets, keys, people to tell	1 to 2 hours
After	Share and store	Tell executors where everything is and review once a year	30 minutes

If you would rather follow a structured booklet than build your own, our When I'm Gone planner is a fillable PDF that follows roughly this order, from funeral wishes to accounts to the people who should be told. It never asks for passwords. A notebook works too. What matters is that it ends up in one place.

When to update the plan

An end of life plan is not a one-off document. It goes out of date quietly.

Life event	What to review
Marriage or civil partnership	Your will (in England and Wales, marriage usually revokes an existing will)
Divorce or separation	Will, pension nominations, LPAs, life insurance beneficiaries
A new child or grandchild	Guardians, gifts in your will
Moving house	Property details, where documents are kept
A death in the family	Executors and beneficiaries named in your will
Serious diagnosis	Care preferences, advance decision, LPAs
Every year	A quick read through, ideally on the same date

Pick a date you will remember, such as a birthday or New Year, and spend half an hour checking the plan is still right.

Where to keep it

A perfect plan locked in a safe nobody can open is not much use. Keep the original will where your executor can get it (with your solicitor, the Probate Service's will storage, or at home in a known place). Keep the rest of the plan together, whether that is a ring binder or a saved copy of the When I'm Gone planner printed out, and tell at least two people where it is. Some people give a sealed copy to their executor. Others keep a folder labelled clearly in a filing cabinet.

Avoid safe deposit boxes for anything needed in the first days after a death, as they can be slow to open. And remember that a plan is only useful if someone knows it exists. Our guide to what your family needs to know when you're gone covers the conversation itself, which is often the hardest part.

The checklist at a glance

Category	Must do	Good to do
Legal	Will, executors, pension nominations	LPAs, advance decision, guardians
Money	Account list	Life insurance in trust, inheritance tax check
Funeral	Burial or cremation, one page of wishes	Music, readings, budget
Digital	Main email and phone access plan	Legacy contacts on every platform
Care	Preferred place of death, who to tell	DNACPR discussion with GP
Home	Pets, keys, people to contact	Letters to loved ones, decluttering

Not one of these tasks is complicated. The difficulty is only ever starting. If you want to see how your remaining time looks in numbers, the Death Clock gives an estimate based on your age and habits. It is not a prediction, but many people find it a useful nudge.

While you were reading

In the twelve minutes it took to read this checklist, roughly 1,400 people died around the world, and around 15 of them in the UK. Some of their families will find a folder with everything written down. Most will find shoeboxes. You can watch the count rise on the live counter, and then, if you have half an hour this week, start with week one.

Sources: Money and Pensions Service (January 2025) on the share of UK adults without a will; GOV.UK guidance on wills, Lasting Power of Attorney and what to do after a death; NHS Organ Donor Register. Global and UK daily death figures are estimates based on WHO and ONS data. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice. For your own situation, speak to a solicitor or a regulated adviser.