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Planning ahead

Everything your family would otherwise have to hunt for, you can write down now in a few evenings. Start with the 30-day checklist or the 10-minute gut check, then go chapter by chapter.

Every guide, in reading order

12 guides

Getting Your Affairs in Order: A Calm 30-Day Checklist

A month of small, unscary steps that leave your family a map instead of a mystery. Twenty to forty minutes at a time, no doom paperwork weekends.

Shannon Donnelly · · 9 min read

How Ready Is Your Family for a Death? A 10-Minute Gut Check

Ten honest questions that reveal exactly where your family would get stuck, and the shortest path to fixing the gaps you find.

Shannon Donnelly · · 6 min read

How to Help Your Parents Get Their Affairs in Order

A practical guide to helping your parents organize their estate plan, documents, and wishes, while they still can.

Shannon Donnelly · · 8 min read

What to Ask Your Parents Before They Die: A Complete Checklist

Practical, financial, and personal questions you can only ask while your parents are alive. Don't wait until it's too late.

Shannon Donnelly · · 8 min read

Having the End-of-Life Conversation With Your Parents

How to talk to your parents about healthcare wishes, funeral plans, and final messages, before it's too late to ask.

Shannon Donnelly · · 9 min read

Helping Your Aging Parents Organize Important Documents

A step-by-step system to help your parents organize wills, insurance, accounts, and digital access before it's needed.

Shannon Donnelly · · 7 min read

Beyond the Will: The Details a Will Doesn't Cover

A valid will still leaves your family guessing about passwords, funeral wishes, pets, and the sentimental items they will actually fight over.

Shannon Donnelly · · 7 min read

One Place for the People Who Matter: Building Your Key Contacts List

Your family will need twenty specific people within days, and right now they're locked in your phone with no context. The one-evening fix.

Shannon Donnelly · · 6 min read

Funeral Wishes: Making Your Preferences Known (Before Anyone Needs Them)

Six major decisions hit your family in the first 48 hours. Three written sentences from you can remove the hardest ones.

Shannon Donnelly · · 7 min read

How to Write a Farewell Letter (When You Don't Know What to Say)

A gentle, practical guide to writing the letter your family will keep forever: what to include, what to leave out, and how to start when the page is blank.

Shannon Donnelly · · 7 min read

When Time Is Short: Preparing After a Terminal Diagnosis

What to handle first when the timeline is measured in months, in the order that actually matters, so the remaining time belongs to your family.

Shannon Donnelly · · 8 min read

For Advisors and Attorneys: Helping Clients Get Truly Organized

Your clients signed the documents and their families still can't find anything. The gap between a valid plan and a usable one, and how to close it.

Shannon Donnelly · · 7 min read

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