HITTING HOME

We learn to live in denial of so many things even if we do not realize it all the time. Until some of it hits home, like it did with me just recently.

Living in denial of death must be one of the most common errors in human life. And it is unfortunately not reserved for the young.

The father-in-law of one of my children was killed in an accident by a drunk driver at the age of seventy. He was a small business owner of a sizeable number of Laundromats in the town where we live, a business that kept him fully engaged. Maybe too fully engaged. The tragedy of his premature death is getting compounded for his children by the fact that he had neglected to prepare for the inevitable day that he would no longer be there. With that day coming unexpectedly soon the emotional and physical damage is great.

In addition to the emotional trauma of his demise, his children (his wife had preceded him in death) now have to deal with sorting through decades worth of files just to find out what is there and what isn’t there. It is certain to be a very frustrating, time consuming, depressing and expensive process to get his estate sorted out and probated.

If you read this and realize that you too are delinquent in making your end-of life arrangements, I implore you to drag your feet no longer and do what you have to do now, without further delay.

What is it that you have to do?

•  If you are a business owner, it is your responsibility to have an unambiguous plan for the continuity of the business, even though that might ultimately result in a sale or a liquidation of it. The plan must be documented (in writing) and shared with all important insiders like other shareholders, the Board of Directors, the corporate attorney and accountant.
• You have to have selected an attorney specializing in family law; and you have to have followed counsel on creating a will and testament, a living will, a durable power of attorney and other similar documents your attorney will prescribe for your wishes and circumstances.
• You have to create a file with any and all access information pertaining to your electronic files (usernames, passwords etc), your accounts, your insurance policies and the title documents of real estate, cars, boats and other titled property.
• You have to share the existence and location of the files and the name and contact information of your attorney and accountant with some of your closest confidants, preferably those persons who will most likely be first informed of your death.

Is all of this obvious to you? You’re still not o.k. until have acted upon this advice and you have put everything mentioned in here in place.

Have you been dragging your heels? You have known all along that you needed to do this –all of this – but you have been pushing it off? Don’t wait until it hits home and spare your loved ones the double agony of having to deal with your passing and with your failure to put your house in order!

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