Assuming you're a normal person and therefore have a complicated, toxic relationship with your family such that you don't want your estate split evenly between your next of kin, a will with which to scorn each of them one last time.
Don't skip the paperwork for declaring your executor and/or a living will either - you don't want those presumedly slimy bastards making medical decisions for you while you're in a coma.
A direct cremation plan. And instructions to not have your ashes interred in a graveyard or funeral home. It'll save your loved ones thousands of dollars, and save them from being exploited by the multi-billion dollar funeral industry.
Okay, so:
Direct cremation is a very specific thing that morticians are obligated to provide, at risk of losing their license if they refuse. It costs less than a thousand bucks (but usually a lot less), and they don't make a lot of money off of it. So, they're unlikely to offer that service unless you use those specific words: DIRECT CREMATION.
What that means is your body is cremated, and your loved ones get your remains back in a plastic bag in a box. They can spread your ashes wherever you want. Or flush you down the toilet. But they probably shouldn't do that, because there's bits of bone in there and that would be really awkward to explain to a plumber. But you get the idea.
Funeral directors will attempt to take advantage of your family's grief to upsell them on virtually everything imaginable. I mean, you loved X, didn't you? Don't they deserve the best? They're monsters. When my brother died our parents were ready to hand over $15,000 to those ghouls for nothing. I intervened, and the same service they wanted was possible for around $800.
Fuck funeral homes.
a towel. every hitchhiker should carry a towel with them.
weird how no one mentioned anything to do with your organs (i actuakly have no idea what to do with them either rofl what does one do)
Make sure you add a statement of wishes to your will, especially look into your digital legacy. My will was straightforward but my statement of wishes was lengthy and the poor lawyer had never had to deal with anything like it before so had to consult a senior partner. In the end they just copy and pasted it over - money for old rope.
It's quite lengthy.
It covers my digital legacy so gives the password to my password manager and a list of key accounts that need shuttering, especially my Wikipedia admin account.
Then various classes of items to different places - academic books to the university library, others to specialist collections, general fiction off to one person, comics to another and on.
If it's something you are interested in, you should read around on the subject as various guides give you examples that may be closer to your circumstances.
can you dm me your will id like to use it for reference you seem to very knowledgable
I've rather not as there's a tonne of personal information in there and little that would necessarily be relevant to you.
My best advice to anyone is search for "statement of wishes" and then "digital legacy" and that will get you the guides I used. I can't claim to have any greater knowledge and experience than they provided, just enough to befuddle a junior lawyer.
It would make no sense and I doubt it'd be of much use to you. You are better off following the guides - I did nothing clever or innovative other than read and follow them.
