How to prepare for your eventual death?

Congrats on still being alive! Living is great. Unfortunately, death is certain. Death is never easy, but we could make it easier by organizing the mess that your family and love ones will inherit. Here's my life lesson learned.

I am not a licensed financial advisor lawyer. I will include citations to the concepts that support my assertions.

Also, this post is dedicated to my friend Jarrod. He recently became a father, so this sort of stuff keeps him up at night.

Who gets your stuff?

I'm not an expert in this area and only have a general understanding. First you get to decide, and you need to write it down in the form of a will. If you don't have a will, then it goes your next of kin depending on your situation and your state's laws.

Next, assuming the above is settled, your estate (people responsible for your stuff after you die) can access your stuff as long as they can proof:

1. you are dead (with a death certificate)
2. they have the right to access it (with a letter of testamentary or letter of administration.

They don't need your username or password. With those letters, they are practically walking into a bank as you if you did with your ID.

Make 3 lists

Just because your estate gets your stuff, doesn't mean they know where you keep your stuff. So I gave my mom a print out of 3 lists:

1. Assets
2. Key Contacts
3. Liabilities

Assets

I only list the name of the companies and account numbers, which is sufficient.

• financial accounts
  • checking and savings
  • investments (stocks, retirement, etc)
• life insurance policy (remind them to keep paying the premiums in case you are incapacitated)
• mortgage (pay your mortgage or your house will be re-possessed)

I don't sweat the small stuff. A safe deposit box with a Honus Wagner rookie card? Add it to the list! A storage locker full of stuff that no one else cares about, probably not.

Also anything that's of sentimental value too.

Key Contacts

Y'all probably have FB, so that's taken care off. But for me, I keep a list of key friends and colleagues that could spread the news for me. And of course, your current manager at work so they don't fire you for not showing up. Potential perk: your company might have a life insurance policy on your behalf included with your compensation package.

Liabilities

What Happens to Your Debts After You Die? Your estate need to pay off what you owe before they get the rest. It also depends on what type of loans, or whether there is a co-borrower. Since I'll be dead, I'll let them take care of it. But since we are a nice people, we would leave them a list of stuff so they know where to start:

• loans
  • mortgage
  • car
  • student
  • credit card (so they don't keep charging you interest)
• subscriptions (things with re-ocurring bills), so they could cancel the service pre-emptively. otherwise they'll just tack on all sorts of stupid fees.

Remember, debts don't transfer. If there isn’t enough to cover your debts, creditors generally are out of luck. Once YOUR money runs out, they don't have to pay. Don't let them scare your estate into paying with THEIR money.

Last words?

Try not to die.