Articles
Guides for hard moments.
Practical guidance, honest answers, and thoughtful explanations — written for New Zealanders navigating death and what comes after.
Recording your funeral wishes in New Zealand
Thinking about your own funeral can feel confronting. Most of us would rather not. But the people who love you most will one day have to make decisions while carrying the full weight of grief — and knowing what you wanted, written down somewhere they can find it, is one of the most generous things you can leave behind. This article walks through the main choices available in New Zealand, explains what you can and cannot legally direct, and shows you how to record your wishes in a way that actually gets used.
Pre-PlanningWriting a will in New Zealand — What it covers, how to make one, and what happens if you don't
Losing someone you love often brings a sudden and painful reckoning with the practical things they left behind — including whether or not they had a will. If you are here because that question is now urgent, we hope this article helps you find your footing. And if you are reading this because you want to spare your own whānau from that uncertainty, you are doing something genuinely kind. This guide explains what a will in New Zealand actually covers, what makes one legally valid, how to go about making one, and what the law does — and doesn't do — when there is no will at all.
Pre-PlanningWhy planning ahead for death matters — the gift of clarity for the people you love
No one wants to think about their own death. That instinct is deeply human. But there is a particular kind of love in doing it anyway — in taking the time, while you can, to make sure the people you care about most are not left guessing, arguing, or drowning in paperwork in the hours and days after you're gone. This article is about why planning ahead matters, what it actually involves in Aotearoa New Zealand, and how even small steps can make an enormous difference to the whānau you leave behind.
Pre-PlanningYour digital legacy — what happens to your online accounts, photos and passwords when you die
When someone we love dies, we think of the tangible things they leave behind — their clothes, their handwriting on old birthday cards, photographs in albums. But most of us now carry an enormous second life online: email inboxes full of memories, thousands of photos stored in the cloud, social media profiles, streaming subscriptions, and accounts that no one else knows exist. Knowing what happens to all of it — and what you can do right now to make it easier for the people you love — is one of the quieter but genuinely important parts of planning ahead in the digital age.
Pre-PlanningEnduring Power of Attorney in New Zealand — What it is, and why it matters more than most people realise
When someone we love becomes seriously unwell, or when we're asked to face our own mortality honestly, we quickly discover that love alone isn't enough to give us legal authority over the things that matter most. An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) is the document that closes that gap — and yet most New Zealanders don't have one. This article explains what an EPOA is, the two types you need to know about, what happens without one, and how to take the first step.
Pre-PlanningTalking to your family about your End-of-Life wishes — It's a gift, not a morbid act
Most of us put off this conversation for years, telling ourselves there will be a better time, a calmer moment, a less loaded Sunday. But the truth is that sharing your end-of-life wishes with the people you love is one of the most generous things you can do for them — because when the time comes, they will be grieving, and the last thing they should have to carry is uncertainty about what you would have wanted.