It can be universally agreed –upon that the two most dreaded things the average person doesn’t want to face are public speaking engagements and their mortality. While public speaking can generally be avoided, your own demise can’t. Make it easy on your heirs by assembling a list with the 9 things they will need once you’re gone so your final wishes can be honored and your friends and family members won’t have to search for valuable paperwork and documents. Start with a simple file folder, marked “Important Information,” and go from there.
1. If you have a lot of online accounts, whether with banking institutions, mutual funds or even social media, create a document with all of the appropriate passwords and user IDs that can give your durable power of attorney or other designated representative access to the accounts. You may want to create a couple of documents, perhaps one marked “personal” and another “financial,” with the website addresses, screen names and account numbers. For example, the son of a website moderator accidentally stumbled upon a community of friends he had no idea his father had when he looked at his father’s bookmarks. He found his father’s password and logged in to tell the users that his father had passed and was pleasantly surprised to see what an impact his father had made on people he otherwise would never have met. Of course, if you lead a double life, you might just want to leave it to the ages.
2. If you have a lockbox or portable safe in the house, write down the combination or note the location of the key to open it. Consider putting stock certificates, savings bonds, mortgage information, will or trust documents, your Social Security card and other important paperwork inside. If you have any jewelry that you want to give to certain people, put the items in separate baggies and use a permanent marker to denote which person they’re going to.
3. Create a document with your bank account information, including the name, physical location, account numbers, any passwords and user IDs. If you have a safe deposit box, note the location of the key.
4. Compose another document with information regarding your insurance policies, including health, auto, home and life. Write down the name of your agent(s) if applicable. If you have made burial arrangements, note this information as well, including the location of the plot, the mortuary or where you’d like your remains to go.
5. Create a document with all of your credit card information, including account numbers. If you get an annual print-out of your credit report, attach it to the document as well. This will ensure that you haven’t forgotten any accounts.
6. Compose a document with the name of your accountant as well as your attorney, their phone numbers and addresses.
7. Write up the kind of memorial service you want. Making your wishes known to your friends and family, in terms of how you’d like to be remembered, whether through donations to a charity, the type of music you’d like played or a favorite poem to be read, will help those you left behind remember your legacy and perhaps make the arrangements easier to manage.
8. Go through your family albums and write down the names of people on the back of photos. This is a way to preserve your family’s heritage, and you may save one of your descendants the trouble of having to pore through archives for a family tree.
9. Designate a relative or close friend as your dual power of attorney for health care and fiduciary matters. You should feel that they know your wishes when it comes to end-of-life issues as well as your financial matters.
9. Designate a relative or close friend as your dual power of attorney for health care and fiduciary matters. You should feel that they know your wishes when it comes to end-of-life issues as well as your financial matters.
