My signature talk about managing your own mortality is s full of recommendations and next steps, and I know that it can be overwhelming. So whether you’ve seen me at a conference or a workshop or you are just curious, this list can help you get situated.

If you want to get an honest assessment of your life expectancy, talk to a life insurance company or a pension fund. Both have an incentive to get your life expectancy right, at least statistically.

If you want to have the most accurate information, get in touch with a local health insurance company and go through the process as if you were to sign up for insurance. This is especially interesting if you have any preexisting conditions (e.g. diabetes), or you crave high accuracy in your data.

If you are happy with a ballpark result, you can use an online calculator. Here are some examples:

You don’t need an exact number; a rough idea is enough. Will you (statistically) die in your 70s or in your 90s? That’s the important information for you.

Personally, I prefer the term Adventure List, or maybe Life List, but to each their own. The idea is for you to figure out what are the experiences you REALLY want to have before you die. Now that you know how many years you have left (statistically), you can make plans. Plans that hopefully take into account not just your life expectancy, but also the reality of ageing. Some experiences are simply more fun at 50 than at 80.

Or, in other words, if you want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, you may want to prioritise that while you are still young.

Your living will is basically the document that defines what should happen if you can’t make decisions for yourself anymore. The most important part about your living will is that someone knows about your values, your preferences, and the decisions you’ve already made.

Most countries just designate the next of kin as your decision maker - your spouse, a parent, or an adult child. If you decide not to write something down, make sure they know what your decisions would be. Yes, those are hard conversations, and they are best done over nice food.

You can also assign a friend, a cousin, or really anyone you choose as your decision maker. Personally, I chose a friend whom I’m aligned with on values and who is very logical. She’ll make sure my wishes are respected, without emotions derailing her or anyone. In this case, though, you’ll have to get the decision registered.

In some countries, this happens within the Social Security or Health system. In other countries, you have to go to a notary, and make sure that everyone knows to ask for the documents when the time comes.

The National Institute of Aging has a great number of resources (conversation guides included) about the content of a living will:

If you plan for your partner to be the person in charge of all decisions, do take a minute to think about what’s going to happen if something happens to both of you. For this alone, you should probably opt to register your wishes.

The number one reason for families to be torn apart, for siblings to stop talking to each other in Western countries, is: inheritance drama. If your family and/or your assets cross countries (and as such, legal requirements), it becomes even more complicated.

Fun fact: If you are in the EU, you can decide which law is going to prevail: either the last country you lived in, or the country of your Nationality (even if that is not an EU country). The EU website Your Europe has more information: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/family/inheritances/planning-inheritance/index_en.htm

Even if everyone and everything is in the same country, the legal stipulations will never be able to account for attachment and emotion. Receiving my father’s favourite knife sharpener was not something local law would have made possible.

You need a testament if you want your nieces or nephews, your friends, a neighbour, or a charity to inherit something you are leaving behind. And even if you have only one child who’s going to inherit everything anyway, you still can use a testament to indicate what you want her to treasure or keep. It makes it easier for her to choose that one thing that will forever remind her of you.

In most countries, your testament can live in your drawer, as long as it is written by hand and/or co-signed by a witness. If you want to avoid litigation, involving a lawyer or a notary can be helpful.

Your testament very likely deals with the “big things”: bank accounts, assets, investments. Someone will still have to clean out your room, your apartment, or your house (and maybe a storage unit). If you have plans for some of the items you own, make sure to communicate those ideas. Or maybe gift those items before you die.

For everything else, consider a blanket permission for your loved ones to do as they see fit. "Take what you will use or enjoy, and donate the rest.” You may still want to define an order of who can choose first, but the reminder to everyone that your belongings are not to be treated as some kind of reliquia can avoid a lot of guilt over emptying out a house that needs to go up for sale.

Again, talk to your loved ones ahead of time. Nothing of what happens when you die should be a surprise to those that were closes to you.

The pictures in your Google Drive, your Instagram or LinkedIn, your Streaming services, and all those other random accounts (with or without subscriptions) - they all require digital access. For companies that are based in Europe, there’s usually a way to recover content as long as you have a death certificate and the patience to deal with lots of questions. If the accounts are based outside of Europe, the success rate is a lot lower.

If you are a Gmail user, and you only do one thing today - make sure to activate Google's Inactive Account Manager. Instead of just handing over your entire Googleverse, you can specify what should happen with your digital information after your account has been inactive for a defined amount of time. Whether you want to give access to specific people or just nuke everything, the tool is very adaptable.

For everything else: make a list of what you have (or review your password manager), get rid of what you don’t need, and see if there’s anyone that you trust enough to tell them the location of your super secret password sheet. If you need example locations, let me know!

I know, this is a lot. It takes time, deliberate thoughts, and definitely more than just one afternoon. If you’ve been procrastinating, you are not alone! And it might be time to sit down with someone who can get you unstuck. Let’s connect on a discovery call and we can figure out together whether there’s a fit. Find your slot.