What Is End-of-Life Planning: Map a Wise, Meaningful End

Facing the inevitable is tough, but planning is crucial. 

At its core, end-of-life planning is about relationships. It’s creating a plan and communicating your wishes with close family, or friends. And some of these decisions are best made through legal means.

Where to start? Here are the five most essential aspects of end-of-life planning:

• Medical care preferences
• Advance directives
• Organ donation
• Funeral and memorial planning
• Will and estate planning

Let’s examine in greater detail what each entails. 

What is End-of-Life Planning?

The facilitators of these decisions will have to be trustworthy, capable people. You can go about empowering them in the following ways:

End-of-life planning encompasses decisions about medical, legal matters, and personal wishes before passing, ensuring a dignified transition, easing the burden on loved ones, and bringing peace of mind to yourself.

• A robust end-of-life plan should help you achieve maximum independence and comfort. Just like any other plan before it, the final one aims to ensure your wishes are understood and followed. 
• With the advice of healthcare professionals, you can prepare advance care planning. It’s about the kind of medical attention you’d like to have if you become seriously ill or otherwise unable to communicate your needs. 
• The purpose of end-of-life planning is to allow you to prepare for death with dignity and peace of mind. Expressing your wishes also helps those close to you to send you off alone the way you want to. They’ll feel better off for doing so.

Why is End-of-Life Planning Important? 

End-of-life planning becomes more pressing than ever, with roughly 3 million deaths occurring in the US in 2022 (and 750,000 across the UK), a number set to rise due to an aging population.

People care deeply. And many have unique, specific wishes for how they want to be treated and remembered.

• A 2021 Kaiser study found that 90% of patients’ end-of-life wishes were met after discussions with their loved ones and healthcare providers. 
• It also relieves the burden on loved ones who would have to make difficult decisions on your behalf. They’d be much more prepared to fight for these decisions and carry them out if they knew what you’d wish to be done.

Having a plan encompassing medical preferences, legal arrangements, and personal wishes gives you more control when faced with constraints imposed by aging or illness. 

End-of-Life Planning with Loved Ones

In a 2022 study by life insurance provider Ethos, 68% of Americans agreed that discussing end-of-life preparations with loved ones is important, yet only 47% had done so.  In the UK, over 1/3 of Brits haven’t discussed their end-of-life plans.

Conversations about death and mortality are challenging but they are better shared. Here are some tips to broach the topic:

• Let your loved ones know in advance you want to have an important discussion so that they have some time to prepare.
• Choose a time and place where you can talk without interruptions and won’t feel rushed.
• Consider writing notes beforehand so that you can make sure that you address everything you’d like to discuss. These notes, even if only quickly sketched, will likely help your end-of-life plan take shape.
• Pace yourself. Remember, you don’t need to decide everything in one discussion.

If you are ready to start planning, download your free digital End-of-Life Planner, valued at £7.50 / $9. If you prefer a physical version of this planner, please visit this link here.

Legal and Medical End-of-Life Planning

Its deeply personal nature makes end-of-life planning incredibly complicated. In this section, we’ll cover the medical, legal, and financial decisions a comprehensive plan should address.

Medical Care Preferences

A 2023 study revealed that while a majority of Americans know their end-of-life medical care preferences, only 22% have documented them. Medical decisions are crucial for a clear medical end-of-life plan. Here are some topics you can discuss with your physician:

• DNR or a “Do-Not-Resuscitate” order can be written by your clinician to make sure you don’t receive unwanted CPR. 
• Life-sustaining treatments, which include medical ventilation, renal dialysis, chemotherapy, artificial nutrition, and hydration. 
• Desire to have (or not) palliative care to prevent pain and suffering through correct assessment and treatment. 

A physician, preferably a geriatrician, who knows and understands your current health status and, as importantly, your drug intake status can be invaluable. They can optimize your medication regimen, reducing side effects by eliminating drugs that have served their purpose.

Medications that cause dizziness are especially dangerous.

Falling is the leading cause of injuries and injury death in the 65+ age group. Speak with a physician or even a pharmacist about the drugs you take. List their side effects.

Advance Directives

An end-of-life plan with advance directives empowers individuals to receive the medical treatment they want when they can’t do so themselves. Advance directives include writing a living will and appointing a healthcare proxy. 

• A living will is a legal document that details desired life-sustaining treatments and medical preferences, including pain management and organ donation.
• A healthcare proxy makes medical decisions for you when you can’t. In most states you can choose anyone over 18 (19 in Alabama and Nebraska), however, the American Bar Association has several recommendations on who not to choose. Ideally, your healthcare proxy will be assertive, understanding, and readily available. 

To discover more about the role, rights, and responsibilities of the appointed agent, read our guide about what attorney-in-fact can and cannot do. 

Organ and Tissue Donation

One aspect of planning for death is considering organ and tissue donation. This entails the removal of an organ or tissue from one person (the donor) and its surgical placement into another (the recipient).

When planning for end-of-life decisions, it’s important to consider that more than 400,000 people live today thanks to a functioning transplant. One person can:

• Save up to eight lives through organ donation
• Change the lives of as many as 75 through tissue donation
• Give someone the gift of restored sight through cornea donation

Funeral and Memorial Arrangements

Some of the major benefits to end-of-life funeral planning are for those left behind. A good plan can: 

• Help your loved ones cope with costs. Planning can set a budget and communicate what services you would like at your funeral.
• Ensure that your wishes will be honored for how your life is commemorated, for example, by deciding whether you would prefer to be buried or cremated. Buying a burial plot also is end-of-life planning.
• Give you and your loved ones more time to find out about traditional funeral practices, and explore funeral alternatives that can offer more choices and personalization.

Will, Trust, and Estate Planning

A will, also called a last will or testament, is a legal document in which you provide instructions to an executor on how to distribute your possessions and finances. 

• Making a will ensures that your assets go to the people or causes you care about. Explore our comprehensive guide on what will can and can’t do for more insights.
• An alternative to a will is a trust, a legal arrangement that allows you to transfer ownership of your assets for various financial purposes, including estate planning. Trusts offer benefits like avoiding probate and greater control over asset distribution.

Regardless of age, estate planning for death can help secure the smooth handling of your assets. Without a will, the state determines asset distribution.

Resources and Support for End-of-Life Planning

There are many organizations and professionals that can assist with planning and emotional support during this challenging process:

• Online Services like Fabric, and LegalZoom (US) and Carers (UK) can support you through the process of creating wills, advance directives, and trusts.
• Digital or Physical End-of-Life Checklists like our Endly checklist available for free here, or physical booklet checklist available please visit this link here.
• Hospices and palliative care services can help with medical arrangements. There is also information available from organizations like the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).

Besides these end-of-life planning services, a network of friends, neighbors, and relatives becomes crucial in later life stages.

Embracing and nurturing connections can strengthen your independence and also, somewhat paradoxically, a sense of community and support. This is known to positively impact long-term health and longevity, as several studies have revealed.

Benefits of Professional Assistance

Seeking expert advice for end-of-life planning can help you gain a more comprehensive understanding of available options and make well-informed decisions. To reduce the stress of your last months, you should identify a professional support structure, including:

• A doctor who listens, understands your preferences, and adapts your medical care for dignity and comfort.
• A financial advisor who can help strategize ways to ensure your loved ones are looked after financially.
• A lawyer who can ensure that all documents, such as wills, trusts, and advance directives comply with relevant laws.
• A certified home healthcare aide who can care for you in the comfort of your home. The latest home care industry statistics underline the positive impact of palliative and hospice care.

Palliative Care at a Hospice or at Home

Palliative care is specialized medical support for serious illnesses. Its aim is to improve the quality of life for patients and families. It may do so by trying to cure the underlying condition but often, just like hospice care, palliative treatment aims to ease the pain of dying.

Receiving care at home offers familiarity and increases comfort by having loved ones present.

What is the difference between palliative care and hospice care? Discover more here with our comprehensive guide. 

Conclusion

In summary, what is end-of-life planning and why is it necessary? 

• End-of-life planning encompasses all legal, financial, and medical decisions that are necessary to make in the final stages of life. 
• It can provide you and your loved ones with peace of mind that all your last wishes and desires will be honored. 
• Thoughtful preparation also eases the burden on family members, relieving them of financial and emotional stress.

Planning for the end is a meaningful act that brings a necessary degree of control in challenging times.