Planning ahead

Write down what your family would otherwise have to find.

Nobody has died, and nobody is ill. This is the version of the plan you do while everything is fine.

What this is

Most of the work after a death is not legal. It is searching. Which bank, which policy, where the will is, whether there was a wish about burial, who has the password to the phone. Families spend weeks on it, and the one person who knew is gone.

This path writes that down while you can still answer it. You end up with a record your family can be handed, and a short list of the things worth doing before then.

Go Forward is not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. It does not draft your will. Nothing you type is shared with anyone unless you ask us to share it.

What we ask

Four questions, on two screens.

1. Why now. Protecting your family, a health scare, or just being organized. A diagnosis changes the order of the list.
2. Whether you have a will. Yes, no, or not sure. Not sure is a real answer and the plan treats it as one.
3. Whether you are married or partnered. It changes what your family would have to prove later.
4. Whether you have children. If any are under 18, naming a guardian moves near the top.

It takes a few minutes. You do not need an account.

What you end up with

Every step on this path is a tool rather than a page of advice. What you put into them goes into one record, kept with your plan.

• Where everything is. Fourteen documents — the will, the deed, the policies, the directives — each marked as found, missing, or not sure, with the room or the drawer or the lawyer who holds it.
• Who speaks for you. The person who makes medical decisions, the person who signs for money and paperwork, the person who handles the will and estate, and a guardian if you have young children. Each one gets a written message you can send to ask them first.
• What you want. Burial or cremation, the service, the music, who should be called. Written in your words, in the first person.
• Your accounts. What you hold and who is named on each, plus your digital accounts and the legacy-contact settings most people never turn on.

Three of those print as sheets a family can be handed. Each is a PDF you download.

• Document list — for whoever settles your estate, and their lawyer.
• Funeral home sheet — for the funeral director, at the arrangement meeting.
• First-hour card — for whoever is with you at the end, in the first hour.

Most of this is free. The Estate Pass is the one thing to buy. See exactly what it adds.

The plan itself

Here is the whole of one — for someone with a partner, young children and no will yet, who is doing this to protect their family. A different set of answers gives a different list.

• Start the conversation with your family
• Connect with an estate attorney
• Gather your key documents in one place
• Write down your financial accounts and assets
• Note your digital accounts and subscriptions
• Review your financial plan with an advisor
• Create or update your will
• Name a guardian for your children
• Review your beneficiary designations
• Set up your healthcare and legal directives
• Pre-plan your funeral or memorial

Two of these send you outward rather than inward: when a lawyer or a financial planner is the right answer, the step says so, gives you the free public directories, and hands you a page of notes to take to the first meeting, built from what is already in your plan. No fee, no form, no introduction — the links go straight to the source.

What this is worth to the people you leave

When someone dies, the first week is spent looking for paper. A family that has the document list knows what exists and where. A family that has the funeral home sheet can answer every question the funeral director asks without guessing at a birth date or a mother’s maiden name.

None of it changes the loss. It removes the part of the loss that is administration.

Doing this for someone else

Plenty of people arrive here thinking about a parent rather than themselves. You cannot write a record on someone else’s behalf, but you can take the cost off their plate: buy the Estate Pass for them and send it with a note. They start their own plan with it, and it stays theirs.

Give this to someone

Questions people ask

Here because someone you love is seriously ill? That is the other path.

Start when you are ready

Four questions. A few minutes. No account needed.

Start this plan

Questions? hello@goforward.life