End-of-Life Planning: A Gift for Your Family
No one likes to think about what will happen after they're gone, but we've all heard tales about how difficult it can be to track down financial accounts after the death of a parent.
End-of-life planning is not just about expressing your wishes. It's creating a guide for the people you'll leave behind and preparing them for what comes next.
A Will is Important. So is the Location.
You may have met with an attorney to create a will, powers of attorney, established trusts, or made arrangements for your final wishes. Those are all important pieces of the puzzle, but they are only valuable if your family knows where to find them.
When a family is dealing with grief, the last thing they need is to become financial detectives, or worse: deal with probate. Yet that's exactly what can happen, as your loved ones will be faced with questions like:
Where is the will?
Is there a life insurance policy?
Do we know about all the bank accounts and credit cards?
What about retirement accounts?
Which bills are on autopay?
Who is the accountant? The financial advisor? The attorney?
And perhaps the biggest question of all: What are we missing?
Even an organized, responsible family can find itself searching through filing cabinets, desk drawers, old mail, email accounts, and computer files, trying to piece together someone's financial life.
It's a scavenger hunt nobody wants to take.
That's why creating an end-of-life plan can be one of the most thoughtful gifts you give your family.
How End-of-Life Planning Can Help
Estate planning documents can explain what you want to happen to your assets, but they don't necessarily tell your family everything they need to know about your financial life.
That's why good end-of-life planning goes beyond legal documents. It's also about creating a clear roadmap to help your family quickly answer some basic questions:
What do you have?
Where is it?
Who should they call?
What Should Be Included?
Your list might include information about:
Bank and credit card accounts
Retirement and investment accounts
Insurance policies
Real estate and other significant assets
Recurring bills and financial obligations
Important legal documents
Your attorney, accountant, financial advisor, and other key professionals
The specifics will look different for everyone, but the two key points are:
Creating a list of all your assets
Telling your family how to access them
What matters is that someone besides you knows where to begin.
How to Create an End-of-Life Plan
The best time to organize this information is while you're healthy and able to answer questions. That way, you can explain the details, correct anything that's missing, and make sure the people who may eventually need the information know where to find it.
A Whole Life List Can Help
The task of gathering this information can feel overwhelming because you likely have information everywhere. And even if you have the best of intentions, it can be difficult to stay focused on this in the midst of a busy life.
That's why many people find that a daily money manager is a key partner in gathering this information, ensuring nothing is missed, and organizing the information in a way that makes sense and is most useful to the reader.
At Everyday Money Management, we've developed the Whole Life List to create a comprehensive financial picture with the practical details your family needs to know. It allows our DMMs to break up this overwhelming project into small, manageable tasks.
And because life changes, we also do periodic check-ins to keep accounts, passwords, and contact information up to date.
If you would find it helpful in creating this type of roadmap for your family, please reach out today.