Create a Living Will

The Logistics of Dying

Death File Checklist

  • Advance Care Directive based on state (or states) of residence—signed and notarized

    • Additional instructions should be typed, attached and include:

      1. Wishes during treatment.

      2. Wishing during the death journey

      3. Wishes for after care death

  • PSAS form—personal self-assessment scale to be used by representatives when initiated in

  • Advance Directive for Dementia—signed and notarized

  • Disposition of body and after death plan

Additional Checklist for Areas of Importance

  • Will/Trust and Certificate of Trust

  • Durable Power of Attorney for Finance

  • Life Insurance Policy

  • Bank Account Information

  • Real Estate Documents and Deeds

  • Funeral Pre-need Documents and Funeral Insurance (if any)

  • Debtor Information (if any)

  • Copy of Drivers License and Social Security Card

  • Copy of Marriage and/or Divorce Certificates

  • Letters to Loved Ones

After Diagnosis, During Treatment, and/or Elderly Stage Checklist

  • Revisit PSAS form and update for current condition

  • Revisit and review Advanced Directive—“wishes during treatment”

  • Fill out POLST form—physician orders for sustaining life

    • DNR—do not resuscitate 

    • DNI—do not intubate

    • DNH—do not hospitalize

  • Palliative Care plan if wanted

  • Go over personal communications expectations

  • Begin “Am I okay to die” activities and soul cleanup

  • Financial, insurance and business arrangement updates

During the Death Journey—Checklist 

  • Revisit PSAS form and update for condition

  • Revisit and review Advanced Directive—“wishes during death journey”

  • Palliative Care initiation

  • POLST update—physician orders for sustaining life

    • DNR—do not resuscitate 

    • DNI—do not intubate

    • DNH—do not hospitalize 

  • Hospice initiation

  • Revisit disposition of body/funeral service from Death File

  • Letters to loved ones? Video or audio messages?

"Picture a wave in the ocean. You can see it, measure it — its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. It’s there and you can see it and you know what it is. It’s a wave. And then it crashes on the shore, and it’s gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be, for a little while. That’s one conception of death for a Buddhist. The wave returns to the ocean — where it came from, and where it’s supposed to be."