Why this exists

A few years ago, my grandpa pulled out his phone and showed me a note. It was titled “WHEN I DIE.”

Inside was everything he could think of that someone might need once he was gone. Banking information. Insurance policies. Investment accounts. Contact numbers. The kind of stuff that families spend weeks trying to track down after someone passes.

It was good, but incomplete. It was a single note on a phone. A phone that could break, get lost, run out of battery, or be locked behind a passcode nobody else knows. And it only scratched the surface of what a family actually needs.

That stuck with me.

I started paying attention

Over the years I've watched families go through it — the scramble that happens when someone dies or becomes incapacitated. People digging through filing cabinets, calling banks with no account numbers, logging into email accounts to search for policies, arguing over what someone actually wanted for their funeral.

Some of that information is eventually found. Some of it never is. And all of it happens while people are grieving.

Nobody likes to prepare for this

I get it. Nobody wants to sit down and think about what happens when they die. Some people set up trusts and wills. Both of those are important – but neither one covers the practical, day-to-day stuff your family will actually need.

Consider this: what would happen if your parent died tomorrow and their house flooded next week? Would you know their insurance information?

Maybe you know the answer, maybe you don't. Wouldn't it be nice to answer that confidently?

I built this free solution

I spent months researching, organizing, and building what I believe is the most comprehensive free guide to documenting your life. It's a fillable, printable PDF covering everything from bank accounts and insurance policies to funeral wishes, pet care, digital accounts, and emergency preparedness.

Documenting this stuff is a monumental task – this guide is meant to give you a sort of fill-in-the-blank template to get you started.

It's designed to be filled out at your own pace. You don't have to do it all at once. Skip what doesn't apply. Come back to it when you think of something new. The point is to have it done — so your family doesn't have to figure it out under the worst possible circumstances.

Being honest about the business

This project is a labor of love. I made the digital PDF guide free because I want to see more people use it. I want fewer families to suffer. I want to make something good in the world.

I'm also working on a printed, bound version of the guide that ships with a fire-rated document storage box — coming soon.

When you download the free guide, I do ask for your name and email to know who's using it. You can also opt in to two types of communication: updates about the project and being contacted by third-party professionals who can help you take the next step beyond organizing your documents. I take this seriously and will not reach out to you without your consent.

If you opt in to being contacted by third-party professionals, I may share your contact information as a lead and they may reach out to you within a few days. This is OPT-IN only. I will not share your contact information with them if you don't opt in.

The bottom line

Death is hard enough without having to figure out logistics in the middle of grief. If this guide helps your family avoid that scramble — makes the hard days even a little bit easier — then it's done its job.