What if you found out you had four months to live?

• Would that motivate you to prepare for death?
• Would you take rudimentary steps to ensure your affairs were in order?
• Would you spend time reflecting on the values you learned in life?
• Would you attempt to communicate with your loved ones making certain they knew of your love for them, and how much you treasured your memories together?
• Would you make sure loved ones knew where to find important documents and information?
• Would you try, as best as possible, to reduce foreseeable disagreements over burial decisions or distribution of your belongings?
• Would you attempt in some small way to reduce the burdens on your grieving loved ones as you awaited the inevitable separation from them?

It is said that part of living a good life is being prepared for its end. That's the lesson offered by Eugene O' Kelly, former CEO of accounting firm KPMG. In May 2005, O'Kelly was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In the last four months of his life he wrote Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life, in which he urges everyone to spend time reflecting on their own mortality - before it's too late.

"If how we die is one of the most important decisions we can make then why do most people abrogate this responsibility? For those considering taking the time someday to plan their final weeks and months, three words of advice: Move it up."

The legacy planning process allows you to plan your final weeks and months in advance because as anyone who's experienced a sudden loss knows, death doesn't always give us fair warning.

Legacy planning puts you in control of making your wishes known, organizing your affairs, and reducing the burden on your family. It also gives you sufficient time to reflect on the values that have guided you throughout your life, to share them, and to document the precious memories you enjoyed with your loved ones. It's the ultimate gift.