Pre-Death Admin and Planning

There are many considerations when it comes to pre-death admin and planning from formal things like a Will, a Power of Attorney, Enduring Guardian and advance care planning, to preparing your own funeral and body deposition wishes.

Funeral and Body Deposition Wishes

Some people have a clear idea on what they would like for their funeral and whether they would like to be buried (and where) or cremated (and what will be done with the ashes) and others don't mind at all ('I'll be dead - I won't care!'). Having clear instructions will be valuable to those left behind, having to make decisions while in grief.

There are many free and low cost online documents that can be helpful including the Natural Death Care Centre Death and After Death Plan, and Your Goodbye Booklet. For our Highlands' Final Checklist - click here.

Your Will

A Will is a legal document with instructions for who you want to inherit your estate, care for your children, and be the executor of your estate when you pass away. Having a Will is so important regardless of your age. If you die without a Will, no one knows who you wanted as your beneficiaries and your assets will be distributed according to a formula set by legislation. This means that certain relatives will receive a defined percentage of your assets, despite what you may have wished.

There are many free Wills you can use - click here for an example of a free online Will. There are a number of online paid Wills you may want to use, or you might consider working with a local solicitor especially for more complex matters. NSW Trustee and Guardian can also assist you to make a Will.

Power of Attorney

A Power of Attorney is a legal document that gives a person, or trustee organisation the legal authority to act for you to manage your assets and make financial and legal decisions on your behalf. This is put in place in case something happens to you and you suffer from temporary or permanent loss of capacity such as an illness, injury or disability. A solicitor can do this document for you; NSW Trustee and Guardian can also assist with this.

Advance Care Planning

Much of the following information comes directly from Advance Care Planning. Before documenting your plan in NSW, it's important to have a good understanding of what advance care planning is and what's involved in the advance care planning process. On this page you can learn about the process and find the relevant forms to make an advance care directive.

Recording your choices

In NSW, there are two ways you can record your choices for future medical care:

appoint an enduring guardian
complete an Advance Care Directive

Enduring Guardian

When you appoint an enduring guardian, you are choosing a trusted relative or friend to manage your health care. The person you appoint becomes your substitute decision-maker if you are no longer able to make decisions.

You may want to appoint one or more adults to this role. To do this, you need to complete an Appointment of Enduring Guardian form. The form has specific requirements for completion and witnessing. Your chosen enduring guardian must accept this role by signing the form.

Your enduring guardian can consent to or refuse treatment on your behalf. They must act in accordance with any lawful directions contained in the form. They must make the decision they believe you would make if you could make your own decision. For this reason, it is helpful to talk to them about what is important to you and any preferences you have.

More information here.

Advance Care Directive

An Advance Care Directive records your specific preferences for future health care. This includes treatments you would accept or refuse if you had a life-threatening illness or injury. An Advance Care Directive will only be used if you do not have capacity to make decisions for yourself or to communicate your preferences.

In NSW you do not need to use a specific form to record your choices for future medical care. If you choose, you can create an Advance Care Directive simply by writing down your preferences in a structured way, signing and dating it.

However, the NSW government has created an Advance Care Directive form that can make the process easier. The form also includes a guide to help you complete your Advance Care Directive.

In your Advance Care Directive, you can write:

an instructional directive with legally binding instructions about future medical treatment you consent to or refuse
a values directive which documents your values and preferences for your substitute decision-maker to consider when making decisions for you
details of your enduring guardian(s) or Person(s) Responsible

Specific Instructions

In your Advance Care Directive, you can give specific instructions about certain medical treatments. For example, you might ask that life-prolonging treatment - such as tube feeding or resuscitation - be withheld or withdrawn if you have:

a terminal illness with no known cure or chance of recovery
severe and irreversible brain damage, and you can’t communicate
a severe illness or injury that you’ll probably never recover from

Download an Advance Care Directive form.

Completing an Advance Care Plan for Someone Else

If a person is no longer able to make or communicate their decisions, a family member or healthcare professional can document medical treatment preferences on a person’s behalf using the Advance care plan for a person with insufficient decision-making capacity form.

This advance care plan isn’t legally binding but can be useful to inform care decisions, and should be taken into account.

Storing your Documents

Share copies of your documents with your enduring guardian, family, friends, carers and your doctors. This will ensure everyone knows what you want. The government recommends that you upload your documents to My Health Record.

You can also download and print a wallet card to let others know that you have an advance care directive.

Getting Help

Contact the National Advance Care Planning Support ServiceTM on 1300 208 582 for more information and advice. It is available 9am – 5pm, Monday – Friday (AEST/AEDT). For more in-depth legal information, read about advance care planning laws in NSW.

Passwords to Online Accounts

Something that often is overlooked, is the storage of passwords for online access to things like social media, cloud storage accounts, email accounts, computer and phone access codes, and online processing accounts like PayPal.

Some people may think about sharing their online password manager details with a trusted person, others may use more 'old fashioned' methods such as writing them down in a book. There are of course, many considerations with sharing passwords with other people and in some cases, there are different ways that an executor of your will can access accounts without the password.