DO NOT IGNORE YOUR MORTALITY

Barnsdale offers a brief but useful discussion about planning for death in this nonfiction work.

With his combined expertise as a licensed funeral director and a certified financial planner, the author is uniquely qualified to discuss both the temporal and financial aspects of dying. Five short but informative chapters cover communicating end-of-life wishes, creating a will, funeral planning, estate planning, and powers of attorney and health care directives. Recognizing the difficulty of the subject for many people, he offers a helpful list of five “icebreakers,” questions designed to prompt further discussion, such as, “I’ve been thinking more about my life and how I want to be remembered. How will you remember me?” The book goes on to present basic information about preparing a will, including a discussion of the executor’s role and using a lawyer versus a do-it-yourself service. A section that specifically addresses “funeral, cremation & burial planning” may be the most unsettling for some readers; in a sensitive yet objective manner, the author covers such issues as whether or not the body of the deceased should be viewed, what happens if a death occurs away from home, the increasing popularity of cremation, the “death awareness movement,” organ donation, and natural, “green” burials. The author offers a brief overview of estate planning with the caveat that he is a financial planner but not an estate attorney. The final chapter addresses the creation of legal “incapacity documents”; Barnsdale advises, “Thinking about our potential incapacity is not uplifting, but considering the risks of doing nothing, it is important.” This book is more of an introduction to the process of death planning than a substantive discussion. Still, it can act as a valuable conversation starter for a difficult subject.

An authoritative, useful overview of making final arrangements.