Why planning is important
Planning for end of life can include creating a will and making arrangements in case you lose capacity to make decisions for yourself. Here's a checklist to help.
Making your will
Planning for end of life, particularly with making and updating a will, can provide peace of mind. That's because a will makes known what your intentions are for distributing your assets.
By documenting and communicating these intentions you can reduce uncertainty or potential dispute with how your affairs are managed by:
- ensuring you have valid documents and instructions in place, and
- nominating responsible people, like an executor and children's guardian, or organisations to carry out those instructions.
Your assets
When making your will it's important to think about your assets. It can help you work out how your estate is to be distributed, and to whom.
It is also important that the person responsible for administering your estate (your executor) knows the details of your assets and liabilities, and where to find those details when the time comes.
Find out what happens to a person's estate if there is no will
Other key documents
But planning for end of life is more than maintaining a valid will, which only takes effect after someone has died.
Other documents have an impact during your lifetime, if you no longer have capacity to make decisions for yourself. These include:
End of Life Planner
An interactive guide to help you prepare for end of life tasks and documents before you meet with a professional advisor. This includes will preparation, Enduring Power of Attorney, Enduring Guardianship, funeral wishes and more.
You will need to log in to your MyServiceNSW Account to use the planner.
We're now directing you to log in to the Life Administrator – End of Life Planner. You'll need a MyServiceNSW Account to continue.
Why should I log in?
By logging in you're able to:
- start the planning process
- update and save your information whenever circumstances change
- find ways to get professional advice if you need it.