This portal, developed in collaboration with the Innovation Hub at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, offers articles and tools designed to help you learn about and prepare for end-of-life. Planning tools walk through a series of yes and no questions about your legacy, funeral, health and legal/financial issues. Depending on how you respond, Cake suggests actions and summarizes your views into a shareable format.
Compassion & Choices
https://compassionandchoices.org/
This nonprofit strives to educate the public about the importance of documenting end-of-life values and related options. It advocates for expanded choices and improved medical practice that puts patients first and values quality of life. The Plan Your Care Resource Center offers end-of-life planning resources.
The Conversation Project. (2020). Your Conversation Starter Kit.
https://theconversationproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/ConversationProject-ConvoStarterKit-English.pdf
This user-friendly guide can help gather your thoughts about end of life and communicate your wishes to loved ones. It provides tips, examples and prompts that walk through the process, step by step.
Conversations of a Lifetime
http://conversationsofalifetime.org/
This site, sponsored by TriHealth and Hospice of Cincinnati, offers tips for starting the conversation and links to forms for talking about and documenting your wishes.
Death with Dignity (n.d.) Creating Your Life File: A Checklist for End-of-Life Planning.
https://www.deathwithdignity.org/life-file/
This checklist can help you create a Life File, or central place to keep “how and what” documents that ensure your wishes are honored at the end of life and provides loved ones with information they'll need to handle your affairs.
Death Over Dinner
https://deathoverdinner.org/
This project invites people to gather friends and family around the table to discuss end-of-life wishes, and provides guidance on how to plan the dinner. "How we want to die – represents the most important and costly conversation America isn’t having," the site says.
Stanford Medicine Letter Project. (2020). Templates.
https://med.stanford.edu/letter/letters-in-other-languages.html
Stanford created the Letter Project to help people write letters about their wishes for care in the future. The site includes templates for What Matters Most and Advance Directives.
Cardoza, K. (2020, June 30). End-of-life planning is a 'lifetime gift' to your loved ones. NPR.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/26/884051182/end-of-life-planning-is-a-lifetime-gift-to-your-loved-ones
NPR breaks end-of-life planning down into six steps, including Take an Inventory, Name a Medical Proxy and Fill out a Living Will.
Stum, M.S. (2011). Who gets grandma's yellow pie plate? Workbook: A guide to passing on personal possessions. University Extension Services.
When emotions take over, the division of a loved one's personal possessions can get tense. This book shows readers a constructive way to transfer non-titled property.
Funeral Consumers Alliance
https://funerals.org/
FCA provides objective facts about funeral planning so families can plan a meaningful service that fits their needs and budget.
Federal Trade Commission. (2012). Funeral costs and pricing checklist.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0301-funeral-costs-and-pricing-checklist
The FTC outlines funeral fees and offers a checklist to use when comparing options.
Natural End Map
https://www.naturalend.com/
This directory connects families with funeral directors, cemeteries and service providers offering simpler, more natural end-of-life options.
Parting
https://www.parting.com/
Search for and compare the price of funeral and cremation services in your area.