You read it in the headlines or hear it on the news everyday. Fatal accident, murder, or death by natural causes. It can happen with no warning.
What rights or responsibilities does your spouse have? If you are in a common law relationship, do you know the laws in your state? If you are single and have children, will they know what to do? If you are an adult but have no spouse or children, do your parents know your life well enough to make your decisions?
This may seem like a morbid subject, but I think about it all of the time. I am a widow with one adult child that I dearly love, but she has no sense of responsibilty where finances are concerned. She is a single mother of two girls, 9 and 16 years old, that hopefully will not be like their mother. When put in a stressful situation, my daughter can not make decisions without leaning on friends for advice. I have tried to keep a list of things I feel she will need to know when the time comes, but my list is in dire need of being updated.
Plan Ahead
Planning ahead now will let you remain in control, whether you are lying in a hospital bed or the morgue.
Do you have a living will? Mine is only legal in my state of residence.
Do you want to be an organ donor but have not signed the back of your driver’s license? Someone should know your wishes.
Do you want a funeral or a memorial service? Will you be cremated or buried?
Where is the deed to your property or the title to your vehicle? Do you have an up-to-date will that can be easily located? Is it locked in a safe and no one has the combination but you? Or maybe these documents are in a safety deposit box that no one knows you have. IRAs, CDs, insurance policies – does anyone know they exist?
Do you have financial obligations that are automatically billed to your credit card or deducted from your bank account?
If you keep important information on your computer, will someone need a password to access this information? What about your myspace or facebook account? What will happen to your blog? I found a post on ProBlogger addressing this subject, but the post is rather old.
When going through your personal belongings, will they find things you thought no one would ever know about?
Do you have valuables hidden in something that could be given to charity or thrown away?
If I have made you think about your own situation and the obstacles that your survivors may encounter, then I have accomplished what I intended.
