Wills testamentary. Living wills and health care proxies. Durable powers of attorney. Testamentary trusts. You know all about this already, but what often eludes people is that their affairs are a mess. Since most of us have a little more time on our hands at the moment, and some of us harbor a dull concern about impending death, this would be a good time to prepare your “cheat sheet.”
Create a document for your kids, your heirs, whoever, that helps them to know what you have, where it is and how to get at it. Also, there are things today that won’t find their way into their hands, like your social media accounts. This is a non-exhaustive list to give you an idea what I’m talking about.
- Bank accounts
- Brokerage accounts
- Credit cards
- Life insurance
- Health insurance
- Veterans benefits
- Social security benefits
- Burial plots
- Automobile title
- Real estate holdings
- Combination and keys to the safe
- Social media accounts (or if you have, say, a blawg)
Make sure your beneficiaries are named and up-to-date. If you have online access, include your user names and passwords. If you change them later, you need to change them on your cheat sheet as well.
All of this seems terribly obvious, and no doubt everyone has their own individual ideas of what needs to be included on the cheat sheet. The point is to do it to enable those you leave behind to manage the mess of your life. It’s worth it.
Although it should go without saying, this is all easier to do when you’re health and not sick with the ‘rona.
If something should go without saying, don’t say it.
Preaching to the choir here, as I feel I am tempting fate if I even by green bananas now. What I have left is place isn’t perfect, but should provide an adequate road map, and those of my family who are fortunate to survive me should be safe beyond their probable worst misjudgments thereafter.