At It’s Your Loss, we employ our own CLEAR UP methodology to help you define, document and communicate your death-preparation wishes.
Contemplate – We get you thinking about your wants by having you fill out a variety of forms and then reviewing them with one of our Wishmasters. Sound tedious? It’s actually quite fun. You’ll find out a lot of interesting things about yourself!
Log – We document and summarize your wishes in the form of our written Estate Information Summary Letter (EISL), which than acts as the starting point for communicating your decisions with others. The EISL also contains practical information like where your important documents are located or who will be acting as your Heath Care Advocate.
Explain – We coordinate group or individual meetings with those impacted by your estate – beneficiaries, executors, health-care advocates or any other interested parties. Together we review the EISL, with our Wishmasters guiding the conversation to ensure a clear and productive outcome.
Amend – The best Explanation meetings result in some Amendments to your EISL. Why? Because it means that good dialogue occurred and that all parties involved felt comfortable enough to engage in the discussion and make their own needs known. New ideas or desires were truly heard and appreciated, and you showed a willingness to update your EISL accordingly.
Report – A final set of documents is generated so that everyone has a copy of the decisions that were made, including all practical information. Congratulations! You are now as prepared as you can be for your end of life.
THE BIG LOSS
Umpire – In spite of all our advance preparation and communication, the reality and tension of your actual death may generate some questions, concerns or a need to modify or clarify the decisions documented in the final report. Our Wishmasters are ready to step in, including assisting with things like:
- Accompanying your loved ones to the mortuary to make any last-minute arrangements.
- Acting as a sounding board for your beneficiaries to discuss differences of opinion.
- Providing resource referrals to various estate management-related services.
- Moderating the small asset disbursement process in your home.
Process – After taking care of your person and possessions, your loved ones face the hardest tasks of all – grieving, and (eventually) moving on. Our team of licensed professional counselors are available to help your family adjust to and integrate the loss of you in their lives and navigate their way to a new normal, through interventions such as individual bereavement counseling, grief groups, bibliotherapy and other evidence-based grief support tools.