Get Your Paperwork in Order
Planning for their own death is no one’s favorite activity, but having the right paperwork and information in the right hands can make a difficult time somewhat easier for family members and the executor of your estate.
The National Institute of Aging offered a number of factors to think about, some of which most of us probably haven’t considered.
Collect Your Important Papers and Put Them in One Place
Important papers include birth certificates, passports, wills and deeds to property but also account information for every bank account, including retirement accounts; insurance information; copies of Medicare and health insurance cards; information for safe deposit boxes; military records; living wills and other items. Make sure family members know where to find these.
Make a Will, Including a Living Will
Regardless of how many assets you have, you should have a will. This allows you to designate the person you want your property to go to after your death.
A living will lays out your desires for health care if you become too sick to make your own decisions or make them known. You can state what kind of care you do or don’t want, such as how much treatment you want in the event of a terminal illness or if you want to be resuscitated. This will help your wishes be carried out and make the decision easier for family members faced with difficult decisions.
Talk to Your Lawyer and Doctor
To make things easier, talk to your doctor about what you would like to have happen with end-of-life decisions and give them permission to share information with a family member. Make sure your legal documents are up to date; have your lawyer look over wills, trusts and advance directives like a power of attorney.
Talk to Your Family
Make sure someone knows where paperwork is kept and what you want with health care. This is also a good time to discuss potential funeral plans, including costs (many funeral homes will allow you to pay funeral costs with life insurance, which decreases the financial stress of a death), and take steps to allow a trusted person to have access to your assets. You may want to put a family member on one or more of your bank accounts, which will allow them to have access after your death. If not, those assets may be frozen for a time.