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One of the things we deal with, unfortunately, is brothers passing. We all can learn from each other's life lessons, and we all can pass on what we learn--that is what brothers do. We have collectively learned some things along the way, and here is some brotherly advice for you to consider.
If you love your family, no matter how young and healthy you are, maybe especially if you are so young that you have young children, no matter if you feel invincible or vulnerable, you should have some things in place to help them deal with your affairs. After all, anything can happen, anytime.
We have learned you need to consider at least 5 things:
- A trust for yourself or you and your spouse
- AND a will or wills, alone or with the trust
- AND a durable power of attorney for financial matters if you are incapacitated
- AND advance health care directives to predetermine end-of-life health choices
- AND, a “doomsday packet” with info about banks, insurance, pensions, property/deeds, passwords, pink slips, a map showing where you buried your cash in the backyard, etc., in the hands of one or two people you can rely on to open when only when the time comes.
It will take some hours of your time and cost a few thousand dollars if you hire a decent lawyer to do a decent job, but there are some online D-I-Y solutions and something is better than nothing.
Having the above can save estate costs and, more importantly, unnecessary delays and hardship, and extra grief, heartache and chaos for your family.
Some of you know all this stuff better than we do, and have taken care of this long ago, but you would be amazed, as we are, that it seems most of us avoid or delay taking care of our families regarding these things. So if you love your family, do them and yourself a favor, do what you can NOW.
Parents around? Another tip, if your parents are still alive, do this yourself first, so then you can tell your parents what you did and ask if they have taken care of these things themselves in order to make things easier for you and the rest of their family.
Changes? And when you move to another state, or have a change in your family, you should check and update the above actions as necessary.
"Here's to all our brothers in Chapter Eternal . . ."
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