Any adult is one unexpected day away from someone else deciding — a fall, a crash, a diagnosis. Write down who speaks for you, the care you’d want, and what matters most, for yourself or someone you love. Five short sections, about 20 minutes. Free, no account, and saved only on your device.
Nothing is final until you say so. See what you’ll get ↓
A real document. One your family and care team can actually use. This sample shows the shape — yours will be in your own words.
"Staying in my own home as long as safely possible. Morning walks. Family dinners on Sundays. Being treated with dignity."
Comfort-focused care if meaningful recovery is unlikely. No ventilator if no realistic chance of independent life.
Healthcare proxy: Sarah W. (daughter)
Secondary: Michael W. (son)
Outdoors daily if possible. Jazz music. Privacy during personal care.
“If my health gets worse, what’s most important to me?” · “Who should speak for me if I cannot?” — to continue with Sarah and Michael at the next family dinner.
One page, in plain words. One for the fridge, one for the folder.
The document travels inside a link — never stored on our servers. Send it to the person who speaks for you; they should have it before they need it.
A wallet card with your proxy and preferences, and a QR code that opens the full document.
Eleanor is an example, not a real person. Your document is built from your own answers — in your own words.
A plan only helps if it’s official, and if the right people are holding it. Each of these is free to start.
Want a person beside you? Find an end-of-life doula. Facing the end now? Start at Quality Death.
Advance care planning is deciding — while you're able — what matters to you in serious illness, what medical treatment you would or wouldn't want, and who you trust to speak for you if you can't. It's the difference between your family guessing under pressure and your family knowing.
Yes. CareGoals is free, with no account, and there is nothing to buy.
About 20 minutes. Five short sections, one at a time. Skip anything and come back later; your answers are saved in your browser as you go.
Not by itself. CareGoals gives you a values document in your own words: who speaks for you, the care you'd want, and why. To make it legally official, copy it onto your state's own advance directive form and sign it the way your state requires; CaringInfo has the free form for every state. If you're seriously ill, ask your clinician about a POLST, which turns wishes into medical orders. CareGoals provides planning tools, not medical or legal advice.
A healthcare proxy is the person authorized to make medical decisions for you when you can't. Choose someone who knows your values, can stay calm in a crisis, and will honor your wishes even if they differ from their own. Without a named proxy, hospitals default to next-of-kin in a legally fixed order — which may not be who you'd choose.
Not in the questions. The five sections are a plain form that runs in your browser, and your answers aren't sent to anyone. The small chat bubble on this site is an AI guide that answers questions about CareGoals; it doesn't collect your wishes. If you'd rather talk it through first, a person is best: an end-of-life doula does exactly this work.
Your answers are saved only in your browser, on your device, and aren't sent to us. The Care Wishes document you share travels inside the link itself — it is not stored on our servers. Nothing is shared unless you print it or send the link.
Yes — that's the point. You can print your Care Wishes document, carry a wallet card with your proxy and preferences, and share a private link with the person who speaks for you, so they have it before they ever need it.
Short reads on why this conversation matters — and what happens when a family, or a whole town, actually has it. Start anywhere.
You keep meaning to and never do. That's not a flaw — the close community that used to answer these questions for you is gone. Here's the why, and the fix.
This isn't only for the old or the dying. Terri Schiavo was 26. Any adult is one accident away — and doing it young is the least morbid thing you'll do all year.
Money isn't a plan. The fall that ends independence starts months earlier — and so does the conversation that softens it.
The kitchen table doesn't care whether the subject is your ventilator or your savings. One conversation can protect both.
The Wisconsin town where roughly 96% of people die with their wishes known and honored — because a whole community learned to talk.
When it stops being hypothetical: hospice, comfort, and what a good ending actually asks of the people in the room.
It’s the one illness that takes your voice years before your life — and about 42% of us face it after 55. Say what you’d want, stage by stage, while you still clearly can.
A directive no one can find at 2am might as well not exist. Where wishes live, who holds them, and how they get followed.
One movement, many doors — what it means when the people who need care and the people who give it own the economy between them.