I’ll confess. Living gets in the way of thinking about dying.

In my post the other day, I commented about taking my will to my safety deposit box. Boy, glad that is done. It took me way too long to finally make an appointment with the attorney and do what I needed to do.  There just always seemed to be something else at the top of the list.

On the way home from that errand, I realized while I had done a good thing, I hadn’t done enough.

Think about this. What would you need to know if you suddenly became the responsible party following someones death?

Well, let’s see. I’d most certainly need to know if there were funds available. My brain would start spinning.

How would I be able to arrange for a funeral? Those are very expensive. If there are funds, where are they? How can I get to them for the funeral and other needs?

Gee, I wonder if there are other bills that need to be paid? Medical bills? How about the mortgage- the family can’t afford to lose the house due to an unpaid mortgage?

Do I have power of attorney to take care of these things? Who does have it? Is it more than one person?

Gosh, I wonder if there was life insurance. Who would even know that and if they did know, would they know which company?

Is there a will? Who is the executor?

I wonder if there is a safety deposit box. There probably is but at what bank- and what branch.

Do we even know if they want a funeral? Buried? Cremated?

Hello! Someone? Anyone?

Thank goodness this entire conversation was only going on in my head. But it did make me pause and think. Do the people who love me, and will be responsible for me, know the answers to these questions?

When I got home, I sat down and wrote a letter. I told my family all the details I could think of concerning life insurance, bank accounts, safety deposit box, property owned, bills to pay and funeral plans. I included contact numbers for people that can help them such as my attorney, my cpa and financial planner. I attached the letter to copies of the important papers and popped it in the mail.

Sure I’ve probably left something out but it has to be better than guessing. I know that from my point of view, it would be very stressful if I had to start guessing all those details for someone else. Don’t stress out your family. Get your important facts and papers together and into their hands.

Need a checklist of important papers to think about and important information to cover, then visit this article, What If I Die? Make Sure Your Family Has All Your Important Information In One Place

 

 Photo credit: the questionnaire copyright Maksum Yemelyanov – fotolia.com