Be the Chief Legacy Officer of Your Own Life

Who is the Luminous Legacy Project For?

If you can answer YES! this is me, to one or more of these items, this Project is for YOU!

  • I am a woman who is 50+

  • I have had passing thoughts that I should start, or update my will, but I keep putting it off

  • I think that dealing with family is …complicated

  • I am a single woman, with no spouse, and no children, so it’s not important
  • I tried numerous times to start the process, but my loved ones have resisted the conversation
  • I have started to think about my Legacy and I don’t know how

OR

  • I have lost a person, career, pet, my health, and my friends and family try to fix me and want me to get over it
  • This loss keeps bringing up earlier losses and it’s all one big ball of feelings
  • I try to make sense of my loss(es) by myself and it’s not helping
  • I am having trouble focusing on my work/partner/kids

  • I’m through the worst of my grief and I need support to decide what my life is for now

If you’ve checked one or more of these items, read on to see how we can work together to empower you to become The Chief Legacy Officer of Your Own Life.

THE WHAT and THE WHY OF THE LUMINOUS LEGACY PROJECT

Hello and welcome! I’m Susan Shafer LMSW, Certified Grief Educator and Founder of The Luminous Legacy Project. I created The Luminous Legacy Project from the ashes of my own transformational journey from traumatic loss and grief to a space of legacy and renewal by asking myself, “what is my life for now”?

The purpose of The Luminous Legacy Project is to empower women to be the Chief Legacy Officer of Their Own Life. The idea for my project arose out of a moment when I was sitting at my computer, and off to my my right, I saw a woman in a tunnel, or passageway, swinging a lantern, and shouting to me, we’re this way. Come on! Yes, a light, a tunnel, and a vision!

I interpreted it to mean that the idea I had was a good one, and I should get moving. I’m out to shine a luminous light that will bring us out of fear, superstition, taboos and traditions that often prevent open, loving, frank conversations about mortality and legacy, until it’s too late. Have you had the experience of losing a loved one and thinking, I wish I’d insisted that s/he’d gotten things in order. What a mess!

I’ve had my own experiences with being the one who had to manage incomplete estate plans of my very old and frail parents, with my son’s inheritance from his father’s incomplete estate plan, and then the unexpected, traumatic loss of my son one month before I was scheduled to retire. My world stopped. After a couple of years of sitting in my comfy lounger watching Hallmark movies, I struggled with the question of ‘what is my life for now?’After a while of inquiry, I became a Certified Grief Educator. My focus is to empower women to create the life they want to live, and how they want to complete it, leaving them and their loved ones prepared, guided and ready to take action with ease and love.

The Luminous Legacy Project is a ‘pre’-estate planning program, where participants can speak freely and safely, receive support and information, and feel empowered to take the actions that will open the conversations about how they want their last chapter to go. We will envision our own end-of-life plans, from funeral, ceremonies and rituals, to the elements of our estate plan. It’s our Legacy.

Additionally, I’m out to support women through their journey from Grief and Loss to Legacy and Renewal. Grief must be witnesses, not fixed or molded. The journey has its own ups and downs, and its own timeline. They say that grief is the expression of love with nowhere to go. That’s true, and there are other kinds of grief too, like the kind of grief we experience when we lose a beloved pet, or a career we worked hard to create, or our body betrays us when we still had big plans. We grieve a future we dreamed of, planned for, couldn’t wait to happen. And then, it’s gone.

The impact of my stand that People Speak Freely and Safely fully realized, is that we, our families, friends and communities are fully engaged in the conversations and activities around our last chapter that are beautiful, practical, loving and even fun. Your wishes will be in place so that when the time comes your loved ones will be guided and relieved instead of lost and stressed, grateful that you had those conversations BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE.

“Birth and death are the only two doors
Through which we pass,
Sacred Thresholds on our journey”
   Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk & activist

Provide Guidance and Relief for Your Loved Ones Before You Embark on Your Final Chapter

Every authority on end-of-life planning, from the Brookings Institute to AARP, claims that we should prepare our plans, our families and our selves, for our Final Chapter, with discussions, documents, and an estate plan.

  • Did you know that, although about 6 in 10 Americans have a retirement account, the majority of adults do not have any form of estate planning document,” says Patrick Hicks, General Counsel and Head of Legal at Trust & Will. In fact, only 1 in 3 has an estate plan, according to Caring.com’s 2023 Wills and Estate Planning Study.

  • Did you know that if you pass on without a Will or Trust (Intestate), and even if you have a will, that the laws of your state will determine how your assets, including the soup tureen your mother loved, will be distributed, and, to further complicate matters, other businesses, or strangers, can file a petition against the estate for what they claim is owed them? [www.trustandwill.com]

  • Did you know that grief that is not dealt with consciously, can have serious psychological and physiological effects, ranging from a lowered immune system and loss of appetite to an increased risk of cancer and lowered mortality expectancy? [UCLA Health, 2/21/25]

Have you gone through the tumult of having to be the one to get to the bank, the funeral director, the cemetery, as you try to figure out what your loved one wanted, arguing with your siblings along the way?

Wouldn’t you want to avoid leaving your loved ones feeling like this…

The adrenaline, the auto pilot, the ‘must’ follow-ups.
The list of calls and emails to the lawyers, the family, the friends,
The paperwork, the calls to the wrong person, the wait time to get to the right person.
The bank, the lawyer, the insurance companies, the funeral parlor.
The pressure to get it done, to be finished, to get to the money for the  funeral.
The questions, the discussions, the signatures, the notarizing, the searching cabinets, to do the things that need doing.
The feelings of overwhelm, can’t, don’t want to; must. It seems endless.
The wishing it had all been completed. Before.

The impact of not having “the conversation(s)” is often a surprise, and quite upsetting. Some of the unforeseen consequences of putting off a Legacy conversation are family disputes, probate court, guardianship issues, unintended beneficiaries, tax claims, and in the case of my former husband’s unexpected death, an insurance claim against him for a fender-bender two weeks before his death that lasted the full year of probate, before his loved ones could touch his estate.

I’ll bet you have a story. And that your friends have a story. Perhaps you are going through your story right now, wishing that your parents or spouse had listened to you when you brought up the subject of planning for their final chapter, and you’ve promised yourself that you would not wait, like they did. Well, now’s the time to get started, with the support of The Luminous Legacy Project.

How Does the Luminous Legacy Project Work?

  • All meetings will be virtual. You’ll have a choice of these options

    • You can join a group of up to 10
    • You can join a small, more intimate pod of 3 or 4 that you can help create with your friends
    • You can work with me individually for the Pre-Planning Curriculum
    • You can work with me individually for a one-on-one Guided Journey from Grief and Loss to Legacy and Renewal

The Pre-Planning Conversations Curriculum

  • We’ll start at the beginning: We’ll review our earliest memories of how our families, neighbors, relatives dealt with death and what we made those practices mean and contrast them with how we face death and loss now. This will open up space to look at any beliefs and practices we’ve brought forward into our lives now that don’t serve us so we can create our own Legacy.

  • Trusted Experts will speak about estate planning, financial planning, and funeral/ceremonial planning and self care.

  • Preparing our Conversation Starters: Try this one: “I love you and appreciate you, and I need to have this conversation now while I’m well and we’re all good and can participate fully. I want to save you a lot of grief when the time comes. Let’s talk about how I want my last chapters to go, and do the work now, and say it all. Then, we can create a possibility for all of us to accept the inevitable in a way that works for everyone, instead of worrying about what might go wrong.”

  • Reports from the Field: We’ll share about how our conversations are going, what challenges we’re facing, what successes or failures we had, what needs to be added, and we’ll celebrate the movement forward, especially the baby steps.

  • Creating our Legacy: We’ll get creative and vision what we want to leave behind for our loved ones. This could range from special videos to letters or memorial boxes to specific instructions to the restaurant and menu you want everyone to have a meal at after your funeral . This is an opportunity to let our imaginations run wild.

  • Self-Care is More Than a Bubble Bath: It could include setting boundaries and/or cleaning up conflict with loved one, putting in place good health routines, choosing spiritual practices that calm and nurture us, to talks with experts about cleansing practices, from our energy fields to our home environments.

WHAT RESULTS CAN YOU EXPECT FROM THE LEGACY PROGRAM?

  • You can expect to be listened to deeply, to be supported with love and respect, and to be empowered to engage in conversations about your own life and legacy that will change the way you and your loved ones feel about planning your own last chapters.

  • You can expect to feel lighter, clearer and energized to take the next steps without further procrastination.

  • You can expect to have stronger connections to your loved ones, who might even catch the Legacy fever, and start working on their own plans.

  • You can expect that the Legacy you take on in this Project will provide relief, completion and love, for the ones who will finally be left behind as you embark on your next journey, transforming fear of the unknown, to curiosity for what’s next.

  • You can expect to have strengthened your boundaries to enable you to deal with any and all consequences of these conversations.

WHAT RESULTS CAN YOU EXPECT FROM THE INDIVIDUALLY GUIDED PROGRAM?

  • You can expect to feel safe and normal from a one-on-one guided journey from Grief and Loss to Legacy and Renewal.

  • You can expect to learn coping mechanisms, communication techniques, and how to protect your boundaries.

  • You can expect to learn to recognize what activates you and how to deal with those triggers

  • You can expect to feel better, clearer, grounded and called back to life.

CREATE YOUR OWN LEGACY NOW

Schedule an Introductory Clarity Call Below to Learn More

During our call, we will discuss which Program best suits your needs and we’ll go from there.

Please fill out the form below so we can get started

What Susan’s Clients Are Saying

After reading Susan Shafer’s offer for free, 1/2 hour listening sessions, I decided to take her up on it, especially after losing my mother. I didn’t expect much at first, but Susan’s approach was completely different from what I anticipated. She truly listened without any agenda, allowing me to express myself freely and fully. For the first time, I was able to hear my own thoughts and emotions. Susan held space for me to go through my grief on my terms, with no pressure to ‘fix’ anything. Her ability to witness my experience in such a gentle, nonjudgmental way helped me more than I could have imagined. I’m so grateful for her support during such a challenging time, and I highly recommend her listening sessions to anyone who is grieving, in any form.

Kiran Ryan-Young, COO, SynergySquared, Inc.

I started meeting with Susan Shafer shortly after losing my adult child. I was heartbroken and completely lost in grief. From the very beginning, Susan made me feel safe, heard, and supported. She gently guided me through the pain without ever rushing the process. After just a few months, I’m feeling more grounded, more hopeful, and better able to carry both the love and the loss. I genuinely feel like I’m healing, and I’m so grateful to Susan for helping me get here.

Martha Issod, Bereaved Parent/Caregiver

I participated in the Luminous Legacy program. It was eye opening to learn all the aspects to wanting your wishes known. Having wills and estate planning is a great place to begin and to have laid out a detailed plan, which includes your wishes on being memorialized is the greatest gift you can leave your family, when they deal with their grief. Thank you Susan for opening up our eyes to creating a “Luminous Legacy”.

Patricial Pollini- Castagna, Retired RN
Life transforming. Healing. Hope.
Being someone who didn’t even think about “grief”
Having lost my family home, childhood best friend and my mother all in the span of 2 years. (giving birth to my only son just 2 and a half weeks before my mom passed)
I never had a chance to grieve.
I never even stopped to breathe.
Yet Susan’s “listening ear”
Finally a moment of peace, purpose and clarity
I got to inhale. And exhale.
As I begin my healing journey
Finally “dealing with” my grief
I am grateful.
Susan provides a necessary space
With experience and expertise
From only someone who truly “gets it”
Thank you.
Venus Ketchum - Educator / Activist / Mother/ Leader

Susan is a licensed social work[sic] and also a certified grief counselor. Her wisdom is priceless.

I trust Susan with my own humanity. She is around my stage/age of life, and is truly a qualified angel with incredible credentials.

Please feel free to reach out to her for warmth, compassion, understanding and affinity.

Judy Lane - Senior Advisor / Strategic Partner

Susan is wonderful! She’s perceptive, intuitive, compassionate and pulls no punches, but with kindness. I’ve had some of these conversations with Susan. While they aren’t easy, they are so important.

Betsy Lazarus Rouse - Licensed Creative Arts Therapist
Would You Like to Join the Project?

Take The First Step, Let’s Schedule a Clarity Call!

On this free 30 minute call we will get acquainted, answer any questions you may have, and get you registered!