NEXsteps Tools

For individuals and families planning ahead and making decisions, and executors stepping into responsibility. Work through them privately, at your own pace.

These tools are designed to help you move forward with clarity, whether you're planning ahead, supporting a loved one, or stepping into the role of executor. Work through them at your own pace, in private, with practical guidance to help you get organized and take the next step. These resources are not a substitute for legal, financial, or tax advice.

Section One

Estate Planning Tools for Individuals and Families

Planning Ahead

Designed or Default™

Reflective exercise, 8 to 10 minutes

A short interactive experience that helps you reflect on what in your planning has been handled with intention, and what may simply be unfolding by default.

It's built for private reflection, helping you notice where assumptions, delays, or outdated decisions might be shaping important parts of your life without much thought.

Best for: individuals who want a thoughtful starting point for planning ahead.
Begin the Experience
Executor Decision

Before You Say Yes™

Reflective exercise, about 15 minutes

A private experience for anyone who's been asked to take on the executor role and wants to think it through before accepting. It gives you room to consider what the responsibility involves, what it might mean personally, and whether you're ready to say yes with real clarity.

An executor commitment can run longer than most people expect. This tool helps you decide with that in mind.

Best for: individuals who've been asked to act as executor and want time to reflect before committing.
Begin the Experience
Estate Planning

Estate Architect™

Guided walkthrough and reference, province-specific, work at your own pace

A comprehensive, interactive guide that walks you through every major area of estate planning, with guidance specific to your province or territory and plain language throughout. Expand any section for more detail, and check items off as you make your way through.

It helps you think carefully through your situation, spot what may be missing or outdated, and arrive at professional conversations with more clarity and confidence.

Best for: individuals who want to understand their estate planning properly and get organized at their own pace.
Start Planning
Personal Records

In Plain Sight™

Working document, work at your own pace

A personal records organizer that walks you through every category of information an executor typically needs to find: financial accounts, legal documents, insurance policies, digital access, important contacts, and more.

When you're finished, you print it, store it somewhere safe, and tell someone where it is. It's the document your executor will be glad you left behind. You can also save your progress along the way and come back to update it as things change.

Best for: individuals who want to get their personal records organized and make sure the right information is easy to find when it's needed.
Get Organized
Planning Bundle Two-Tool Bundle

The Prepared Estate™

Two-tool bundle, work at your own pace

Estate Architect™ and In Plain Sight™, bundled into a single purchase. One walks you through your estate planning picture so you can see what needs attention. The other gets your records organized and ready to find.

If you're ready to take on both at once, this is the most practical way to do it.

Best for: individuals who want to address both their estate planning clarity and their personal records together, and want the best value for doing it.
Explore the Bundle
Powers of Attorney

Who Speaks for You?™

Guided walkthrough and reference, province-specific, work at your own pace

An interactive guide to the enduring power of attorney for finances, with guidance specific to your province and plain language throughout. It helps you understand what an EPA is, how it works where you live, who can hold that authority, and what needs to be decided before you sign anything.

Explore it by topic, in whatever order makes sense for you, whether you're setting one up for the first time or trying to understand one you already have.

Best for: individuals who want to understand the enduring power of attorney for finances and get properly organized before working with a professional.
Get Started
Medical Directives

Your Voice, Your Care™

Guided walkthrough and reference, province-specific, work at your own pace

An interactive guide to the personal directive and health care decision-making process, with guidance specific to your province and plain language throughout. It helps you think through your values, your care preferences, and the kinds of decisions your representative may one day need to make on your behalf.

Explore it by topic, in whatever order makes sense for you, whether you're putting a directive in place for the first time or reviewing what you already have.

Best for: individuals who want to think through their personal directive carefully and arrive at professional conversations with a clear sense of their own wishes and values.
Get Started
Planning Bundle Two-Tool Bundle

In Good Hands™

Two-tool bundle, province-specific, one purchase

Who Speaks for You?™ and Your Voice, Your Care™, bundled into a single purchase. If you're ready to think through your financial decision-making authority and your personal directive at the same time, this is the most practical way to do it.

Both tools are province-specific and built to be worked through at your own pace.

Best for: individuals who want to address both their financial and health care directives together and want the best value for doing it.
Explore the Bundle
Will Preparation

The Will Blueprint™

Working document, jurisdiction-aware, work at your own pace

Most people know they need a will. What holds them back when they finally sit down with a lawyer usually isn't a lack of intention, it's not knowing what questions to raise, what to bring, or what they haven't thought of yet.

A lawyer can only draft what you tell them. If you don't think to mention the vacation property in another province, the blended family situation, or a child who can't receive a direct inheritance, none of that gets addressed. The Will Blueprint™ walks you through the key questions involved in creating or updating a will, including many that don't come up in a typical lawyer appointment. You'll finish with a personalized summary organized by topic, with the issues that need attention already identified, ready to save as a PDF or print to bring to your lawyer.

Best for: individuals who want to arrive at their lawyer's office prepared, with the right questions already raised and nothing important left out.
Start Your Blueprint
Section Two

For Executors

Executor Guidance

Executor's Compass™

Guided walkthrough, work at your own pace

Every bank, lawyer, and institution hands new executors some version of the same checklist, and none of them explain what to actually do with it. Executor's Compass™ takes that checklist and turns it into something usable: what happens after a death, what needs to be handled first, and how the estate process unfolds over time, with clear guidance and practical prompts so you're not left guessing when everything feels unfamiliar.

Best for: executors who want practical guidance, clearer direction, and a better understanding of the estate administration process.
Find Your Bearings
Complete Suite Guidance + Tools

Executor's Compass™ Suite

Guidance and working tools, together

For executors who want more than an explanation of what to do. This suite pairs Executor's Compass™ with a personalized estate administration timeline that tracks your progress in real time as you complete each task, plus a full tracking worksheet covering the asset inventory, debts and liabilities, beneficiary distributions, and an executor activity log. Everything you need to arrive at a clean final accounting for beneficiaries.

Best for: executors who want practical guidance along with tools to help them stay organized, track progress, and manage the work more confidently.
Explore the Suite
Executor Conduct

The Executor's Standard™

Reflective scenario assessment, about 30 minutes

Most executors focus on the tasks. Few stop to consider the conduct, and that's usually where personal liability begins. This self-assessment walks you through nine scenario-based pillars, built on the F.I.D.U.C.I.A.R.Y. Framework™, covering everything from recordkeeping and impartiality to distribution timing and risk awareness.

You'll follow Sandra through nine realistic moments in an estate administration, choosing how you'd respond at each one and seeing what each choice puts at risk.

Best for: executors who want to understand the standard they're being held to and leave with a personalized conduct profile and a printable reference card.
See Where You Stand