The End of Life Planner: so your family is never left searching.

“When my wife asked me to buy it I thought it would just be an overpriced empty binder. But it's actually very well structured. It takes the guesswork out of what paperwork actually matters. An unexpected bonus is that it stopped us bickering about where the house deeds and insurance policies were kept. Locked in the study safe now and sorted.”

“Straightforward. I understood all of it and I'm not a paperwork person.”

“I remarried in 2015. My will was written in 2009, when I was still married to my first husband, and I'd always assumed it just carried on. It did not. Reading the bit about a later marriage not sitting quietly beside an old will is what sent me to my solicitor. It's been redone now. Nobody had said that to me in fifteen years.”

“Did it on the Sunday afternoon with my daughter. It's done now. I'll sleep easier.”

“It was, frankly, a huge relief rather than a chore. Everything of his is now written down in one safe place in his own handwriting. I know which pension provider we have and how to log into the electricity account.”

“I settled my father's estate in the spring. Two months of hunting for things that only ever existed in his head, and a bank that wouldn't speak to me until I had the grant. I'm fifty-four. I'm not putting my two through that. It took an afternoon.”

“Rita: Ken said it was morbid and didn't want to know. Ken: I still think that, partly. Rita: He did it anyway and he's the one who's got the card in his wallet. We got stuck on the pensions page — three providers between us and I could only name two. Took us a week to dig out the third. Four stars, not five, because of that.”

“I got it after a scare in August that turned out to be nothing. What got me wasn't the money side, it was the first page. I sat there and realised if it had been something, my wife would have rung our GP before anyone else, and got nowhere. That's the bit I needed. Rest I filled in because it was there.”

“The kit arrived quickly and I had it finished over the weekend. No jargon, no padding, and it's sensibly ordered so you're never sat staring at a page wondering what they want from you. The emergency summary at the front is the part I'd single out; I'd never have thought to put all of that in one place on my own.”

“We sat down together on Sunday with coffee and biscuits to tackle it. Talking about what happens if the worst happens is a conversation most families avoid, but the structured layout meant it never felt morbid or heavy. It actually led to some of the warmest family discussions we’ve had in years. Everything is indexed and secure now.”

“I'm in a leasehold flat and the thing I wanted was who to write to about the building — the freeholder, the managing agent, service charge. It's covered but lightly, and I had to add a page of my own. There's a lot in here for people with a house and a garden. Three for me, five for them.”

“I've been an executor twice. Second time was easier because I knew the drill, first time I was lost for about three weeks. Only reason it's not five is I'd want the bank letters written out ready, and that's the dearer one.”

“My son is forty-two and can't manage money or sign anything that matters. I've had a will for years. What I hadn't sorted was who can actually act for him, and for us, if it goes the other way. That's the section that earned its money for me. The will part I already had.”

“We farm, and half of what we've got isn't the sort of thing you put in a bank. Land, the tenancy, the machinery, a partnership that isn't only me. This handles the household side well enough and I'll use it. It's thin on a working business, though I don't suppose it ever claimed otherwise. What I did take from it was how many separate places have to be told. I hadn't counted six of them.”

“I've got macular degeneration so small print is out for me now. I asked at the stall if there was a version I could enlarge, and he showed me on his own machine that the typeable copy would let me. Took me an evening to get it set up the way I wanted, and that's the only reason it's four and not five. Once it was up on the screen I could read it properly. First time in years I've filled in something like this without my daughter doing it for me.”

“Having previously served as an executor for a relative where paperwork had to be reconstructed from scratch over many months, I appreciate the absolute necessity of this document. The kit is quiet, orderly, and comprehensive. The checklist leaves no ambiguity regarding titles, bank accounts, or executor directives. It is completed, placed in my bureau, and my executor knows its exact location.”

“The digital access page and the cut-out first-call cards are the smartest part of the pack. Nobody thinks about a locked phone until it is locked. Having that beside the bank bereavement contacts means our daughter isn't locked out of our lives.”

“Fair bit of reading. Don't get me wrong, it's useful, but I'd rather have less paper and pay less.”

“No children and we rent, so a fair bit didn't apply to us. The page telling you who to ring first is the bit I've kept. Rest is in the drawer.”

“Wanted a couple more of the little wallet cards for the grandchildren. Printer wouldn't play ball. Sent a message expecting nothing back and got a reply the same day telling me what to change. Sorted.”

“Fifty years married and there was still stuff in there I'd never sorted. Where the deeds are, who to ring first. My son's got it now, on his shelf.”

“Too much of it for us. No mortgage, no pensions worth the name, one account. Paid the same as everyone else for a good chunk we'll never use. The first page is good though, I'll give it that.”

“Does what it says. No fuss.”

“Bought it for my mother while she's still sharp enough to fill it in herself. She did it over two evenings. Said it was the first time anyone had asked her the right questions.”

“Self-employed, so my business account and my personal one are at the same bank, and the form doesn't have anywhere to say that. Took me an evening to work out how to write it so it made sense. Fine for a household with a salary and a mortgage. Less fine if you're on your own like me.”

“I left a job in 1998 and assumed the pension went with it. It didn't. Doing this at the kitchen table, going through old payslips to fill the form in, I found the scheme name and an old letter I'd kept. Rang them. It's there, small, but mine. Thirty years of not knowing.”