The Important Questions Everyone Should Be Answering

October 30, 2017

It’s been a sad week in my neighborhood. One of our neighbors just down the street, a father and husband, was in a freak accident in his yard and was killed last Saturday. He was probably in his mid-40’s; much too young to die. I saw his widow a couple days ago, who is obviously still in shock, and her comment was, “he was supposed to be here,” and she is right.

Asking the tough questions

I am surprised by the effect that it has had on my husband and me. There are no guarantees that either of us will still be here tomorrow and this really drove it home for us. We found ourselves grappling with several big questions.

• How would one of us handle the kids without the other there to help?
• Would we move? Where to?
• Do we really have adequate life insurance in place?
• Where and how do we want to be buried?
• What would have to be done with our financial accounts to change the ownership?
• How would we make the immediate post-death decisions; on our own or would we be pressured by family members to do things a certain way?
• Whose feelings are more important, the widow/er’s or the mom’s?

These are all loaded questions and not fun to hash out, but that’s what you have to do when making your estate plan. Many of us take a gamble that it will never happen, so why bother until we’re older? When does “older” get here?

The time is now

I challenge you, by the end of this year, to sit down on your own or with your spouse if you are married, and review all of these questions and figure out the answers. If it means digging out your old estate planning documents, then do that. If it means, creating new ones, do it. If it means talking to your bank and making sure you have beneficiaries on all accounts, make it happen. If you don’t know if you have enough life insurance, find out.

Even if you don’t end up using any of these plans, you benefit just by having the conversation. I know it’s helped my husband and I to clear up a few loose ends. Make it happen.

And, stay safe out there everybody, it’s a crazy world.

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