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Let’s face it: death isn’t the kind of subject you’d bring up at a party or a social gathering with family members and friends. It’s a topic that no one wants to talk about, yet it affects every single person on the planet.

Death is undeniably tough to deal with when it relates to a close family member or friend. As you can appreciate, it will also be difficult for your relatives and friends to comprehend when you eventually leave this mortal coil.

You may not know when you’re going to die. But, it makes sense to plan for your passing so that those closest to you don’t know to deal with anything else on top of their grief when you die. In no particular order, here’s how to prepare for your death while you’re still living:

Make a Will

A will is essentially a legal document that details what you would like to happen when you die. A will helps living relatives determine what the deceased would like done with their “estate” – their money, property, and other valuables like cars, jewelry, artwork, and so on.

In your will, you should state how you would like your estate distributed to any named beneficiaries. For example, if you own your home, you might want to leave it to your spouse, partner, or family member.

You may even decide that you’d like certain assets to get auctioned off, with the cash proceeds going to family or charity beneficiaries. Without a will, the likelihood of estate disputes between family members and other parties is significantly high.

When you create a will, you can have it stored safely with a lawyer of your choice, and that lawyer can contact your beneficiaries when you pass away so the contents of the will can get read to them.

You can even use a service like FreeWill to create a free will if you’d rather not pay your lawyer to make one for you.

Organize Life Insurance

Do you want to get known as someone that died pennilessly and left behind thousands of dollars of debt? Probably not, which is why it makes sense to organize a life insurance policy.

As you know, life insurance is a product that pays out money to beneficiaries like spouses and other family members when you die. You can customize your life insurance policy by specifying how much cover you want and sometimes how you’d like the money distributed.

Many people may have a life insurance policy automatically arranged by their employer; this sometimes gets known as a “death in service benefit” and pays out four or more times the person’s annual salary.

You can even have more than one life insurance policy, and they don’t even need to be with the same provider. For example, you could have a policy separate from the one provided by your employer.

Plan and Pre-Pay Your Funeral

When you die, someone has to pay for your funeral. Often, the money will get taken out of a deceased person’s estate. But, if they have no money to leave, a relative or friend will need to fund the funeral themselves.

It’s possible to get federal assistance with funerals; however, that help is often minimal. With all that information in mind, it makes sense to start planning and pre-paying for your funeral yourself.

A simple online search will reveal many pre-paid funeral providers that can help execute your funeral wishes. Plus, you can fully customize your funeral with urns from Memorials.com, for example, if you want a cremation.

You may even prefer to have a green burial if you prefer to leave as little an environmental impact as possible when you die. Green burials also enable you to get buried in natural settings, and they’re very cost-effective compared to traditional burials.

Nominate Someone to Have Power of Attorney

You may find that your health deteriorates over a period before you eventually pass away. In those circumstances, you may not have the mental or physical capacity to make decisions about your life while you’re still living, especially when related to financial matters.

In those cases, it can help to nominate someone to have a power of attorney so they can make the right decisions on your behalf. Take a look at this article from the American Bar Association for more information on what a power of attorney entails.

While a power of attorney is directly related to a person dying, it’s something that can get invoked when an individual is near to death, such as being at the final stages of a degenerative disease or condition.

Make a Bucket List

You’ve probably heard of a bucket list, a written or mental list of things someone wants to do before they die. You may already have a list of fun things you want to do, such as go skydiving or go on a survival trek in the wilderness.

Whatever you want to do before you die, it’s a good idea to document your wishes in a bucket list. You don’t have to be terminally ill to create a bucket list; it’s something you can do even from early adulthood.

Having a bucket list is an opportunity to think about what matters to you the most and what you’d like to do with your remaining time while you’re alive. Plus, if you share your bucket list with loved ones, they can help you accomplish your goals.

Create a Lasting Legacy

Lastly, you may wish to create a long-lasting legacy after you die. Sure, you may already plan for your family’s financial future by having a life insurance policy and paying off the mortgage on your home, for instance.

But, you might want to do something else with some of your estate, such as have a charity set up in your name that helps a particular cause close to your heart. You may even want to give life goal gifts to your children, such as paying for their college education.