If you’ve worked with AfterLight, you already know the moment I’m talking about. Someone dies, and suddenly the person left behind — usually a spouse, an adult child, or a sibling, with no prior experience — is expected to know how to close a bank account, cancel the Xfinity account, clean out a storage unit, and figure out what to do with 40 years of paperwork. All while grieving.
That gap between “here’s what needs to happen on paper” and “here’s how you actually get it done” is the reason AfterLight exists.
But here’s what I don’t talk about enough: we’re not the only ones doing this work. There’s an entire field of professionals — organizers, move managers, death doulas, after loss professionals — quietly showing up for families in exactly this way. Most families don’t know we exist until they desperately need us.
That’s starting to change.
This year, I’ve been helping build The Executor Gap Summit alongside my PALS co-founder, Jasmine Hathaway, and it is a first-of-its-kind event bringing together the professionals who support families through loss, from every angle. Attorneys, financial advisors, organizers, and after loss professionals, all in one room, learning from each other and getting better at what they do.
We went virtual this year on purpose. We wanted every professional doing this work — wherever they’re doing it from — to have a seat at the table. Almost 200 people registered in the first four days alone.
That response told me something I already believed: this isn’t a niche problem. It’s a widespread one. And the more professionals are trained, connected, and supported in this work, the better the experience is for every family navigating loss.
That’s good news for you.
If you know someone doing this work — or someone who should be — I’d love for you to pass this along. The bigger and better-connected this community gets, the more families have somewhere to turn when they need it most.
