Not Your Average Death Blog
Sometimes Love Looks Like a Bowl of Cold Water
Every morning on my run, my dog makes a stop at a house in the neighborhood where a very kind woman leaves out ice water for passing dogs. Every day, she fills a heavy bowl, places it in the shade under a tree, and freezes a huge block of ice so that the water stays cold even on hot days. It takes planning, effort and valuable freezer space.
And yet, she does it anyway.
She doesn't know which dogs will come by. But every day, she does this small thing to make life a little easier for these four-legged neighbors she'll likely never know.
It got me thinking about the ways we care for the people we love.
Don't Hide the Baklava From Your Estate Planning Attorney
Yesterday, I went to my annual physical. My doctor asked what I had eaten the day before. I dutifully recited the healthy highlights: eggs, watermelon, yogurt, and sweet potatoes.
What I somehow neglected to mention was the baklava I had eaten after dinner.
I really like my doctor. She was kind, thoughtful, and only doing her job. But when she gently suggested that the four slices of bread I'd eaten that day might have been a little carb-heavy, I decided introducing the baklava into the conversation would probably overwhelm everyone involved.
The encounter got me thinking about something I see all the time in estate planning. People leave things out. And it’s not because they're dishonest. Usually, it's because they're embarrassed or because the situation is complicated or because they assume a detail isn't important enough to mention.
How Creditors Can Delay a Probate Estate
Can you open a probate estate, distribute the assets, close the file, and move on without worrying about creditors?
Not quite.
In this episode of The Death Readiness Podcast, Jill answers a listener's question about why probate sometimes feels painfully slow. Using Tennessee law as an example, she explains how the creditor claims process works, why executors can't simply skip legal formalities, and what can happen if beneficiaries receive their inheritances before all of the creditor deadlines have expired.
What You Need to Know About Estate Planning at 30
What estate planning documents does a healthy 30-year-old actually need?
In this episode of The Death Readiness Podcast, Jill answers a question from a young listener who wondered what someone her age should be doing about estate planning. Using stories from her own life, including the loss of several young friends, Jill explains why estate planning isn't just for retirees.
You'll learn why powers of attorney and healthcare advance directives may be more important than a Will when you're young, how the famous Nancy Cruzan case changed the conversation around end-of-life decision-making, and what a recent Michigan court decision means for pregnant individuals and advance directives. Most importantly, you'll learn why estate planning doesn't have to be perfect; it just has to start.
What My Blank Diploma Taught Me About Estate Planning
In 2005, I graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Russian language and literature. I worked hard and got good grades. I was the kind of student who took academics seriously.
And yet, on graduation day, I was holding a blank piece of paper.
Why?
How to Prepare for Retirement Without Panic
Jill Mastroianni is joined by her close friend and financial advisor, Blair Coffman Martin, to discuss how to approach retirement planning, long-term care, and helping adult children without feeling overwhelmed. Blair emphasizes that financial planning isn’t about having all the answers upfront; it’s about starting with what you know, organizing your spending, and creating a flexible plan for the future. They also cover required minimum distributions (RMDs), consolidating accounts, and strategies to involve adult children responsibly in financial decisions.
How Do You Know If Mom Can Still Sign
What happens when someone with memory changes needs to sign a will, trust, or power of attorney? Who actually decides whether they’re “competent” enough to sign, and what happens if people disagree?
In this episode, Jill Mastroianni shares personal stories involving her own mom, a deathbed signing that never happened, and what the law actually says about mental capacity and estate planning. We talk about why competency is not an all-or-nothing question, who acts as the initial gatekeepers during a signing, and why families often begin asking “Can Mom still sign?” when they’re already standing in the middle of a crisis. Most importantly, we talk about why estate planning works best when decisions are made from a place of choice, not urgency.
Why Your Weighted Vest Might Be Better Than Your Perfect Plan
I know I’m supposed to lift weights. I also don’t own weights or belong to a gym. For the past few years, my strength-training strategy has consisted mostly of thinking about strength training.
So yesterday I dug a weighted vest and wrist weights out of the garage and went for a walk. Is it the same as a carefully designed strength program? Nope. Is it perfect? Definitely not. But it was something. And isn’t estate planning exactly the same?
How to Update Estate Planning After a Dementia Diagnosis
What happens when a parent develops dementia and an attorney tells your family it’s “too late” to update estate planning? In this week’s Tuesday Triage episode, Jill walks through a real-life scenario involving outdated trusts, powers of attorney, probate versus non-probate property, and the estate planning opportunities that may still exist even after incapacity enters the picture. This episode explores how understanding asset titling, existing estate planning documents, and revocable trusts can help families creatively adapt an older estate plan to current realities.
The Bark Management Strategy Behind My Podcast
Monday is podcast recording day in our house, and Artie absolutely knows the routine. The second I head toward the basement to record the next episode of The Death Readiness Podcast, he follows right behind me like it’s his full-time job.
How to Take Your Estate Plan Off Script
You can follow all the estate planning rules and still end up with the wrong plan. In this episode, Jill walks through a question from a young attorney who’s been handed traditional estate planning forms and is wondering whether they actually serve her clients. Jill break down how a standard trust structure can limit flexibility for families who don’t need estate tax planning, and how small adjustments can make a big difference. Estate planning isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about building something that works.
Boots Got Adopted (And Yes, It’s Bittersweet)
Boots got adopted. She was curious, scrappy, and somehow always exactly where she shouldn’t be. The house feels quieter without her… and little less chaotic too. But mostly, it just feels different.
I got this message from Detroit Dog Rescue today about her new home:“She is fitting in incredibly well and they are obsessed with her!”
Why your life insurance trust might not work
New clients came in with two life insurance trusts—professionally drafted, signed, notarized, and organized in beautiful binders. There was just one problem: the trusts didn’t do anything.
In this episode, Jill breaks down what an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) is, when it actually makes sense, and how it fails when no one follows through. This is a real-life look at the gap between having documents and having an estate plan that actually works.
Michigan Just Changed How Advance Directives Work
Until a few days ago, there was a significant limitation built into Michigan law that most people didn’t know about.
If a patient was pregnant, their end-of-life decisions could be overridden, even if those decisions were clearly stated and even if they had chosen someone they trusted to speak for them.
Michigan law required advance directives to include this language:
“The patient advocate designation cannot be used to make a medical treatment decision to withhold or withdraw treatment from a patient who is pregnant that would result in the pregnant patient’s death.”
In other words, there were circumstances where your voice didn’t control, even when you had done everything “right.” That restriction has now been struck down as a violation of the Michigan Constitution.
Spring has sprung at Belle Isle.
This morning it was just me, my dog, and a field of daffodils that seemed to show up overnight. We went for a run, and I kept reminding myself to take it in.
How assets get lost after death and what to do
When someone dies, there’s no master list of what they owned and no automatic system that pulls it all together. In this episode, Jill walks through what actually happens when families try to track down assets, why unclaimed property isn’t the safety net people think it is, and how a lack of organization can turn estate administration into a frustrating, years-long scavenger hunt. This is where estate planning meets real life and where most plans break down.
Why saying yes to serving as agent under a POA can backfire
Agreeing to serve as an executor, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney often feels like the right thing to do but it’s also one of the most overlooked risks in estate planning. In this episode, Jill flips the perspective and walks through what you need to evaluate before you say yes to a fiduciary role in someone else’s estate plan. From compensation and liability to knowing when to step in and how to step out, this episode highlights the gap between estate planning documents and real-life execution. Because a well-drafted estate plan only works if the people named in it are set up to succeed.
What You Can and Can’t Do with the Trust You Inherited
Can you stop your child from inheriting money, even if the trust says they should? In this estate planning episode, we walk through a real-life scenario where a mother is trying to protect her son from receiving a large inheritance at the wrong time. Along the way, we break down how estate planning tools like trusts actually work in real life, what trustees can and can’t do, and why you can’t simply “use up” a trust to avoid passing money on. We also introduce a powerful (and often overlooked) tool, a power of appointment, that might allow you to adjust what happens next, even when a trust is irrevocable. Because sometimes the plan is set… but not completely locked.
Death Readiness Doesn’t Happen in a Vacuum
My best friend came to Michigan this week, and we did what best friends do. We ran, we biked, we wandered, and we talked about everything. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, we also got her ready for her first meeting with a financial advisor.
Why That Retirement Account May Not Go Where You Think
What happens if you don’t name a beneficiary on your retirement account? Most people assume it goes to the estate. But that assumption can be dangerously wrong. In this episode, Jill walks through a real case where getting this wrong would have cost a surviving spouse more than $300,000, and explains what actually controls the outcome in your estate planning.