I have been thinking about death a good bit over the past few years. My thoughts initially started around a few podcasts I heard in 2019, continued with the uncertainty and numerous deaths from COVID-19, and recently were renewed as I am currently reading Die With Zero, by Bill Perkins. While it can be an uncomfortable issue to think about, I believe we do those around us a great disservice by not preparing for the inevitable, and believe that we should prepare sooner rather than later.
For years I lived thinking it wasn’t overly important for me to prepare for death, especially a premature death. I felt that since I am single, and do not have any dependents, that I had no need for a will. I believed that I had no need to specify for the distribution of my wealth and assets. In short, I mostly thought of preparing for my passing as having a will. This view changed when I listened to a podcast episode, I sadly forget which one, where the podcast guest’s father had passed away unexpectedly.
One issue that came up in this podcast was that the father had been the person taking care of financial matters exclusively in the relationship. This ended up causing the surviving members of the family a lot of hardship. The hardship was because not only were they mourning the loss of a family member, they now had to figure out what the bills were, where the money was, what accounts were open, and how to access all of these accounts.
Hearing this story made me realize that all the reasons I thought I did not need to prepare for death, no dependents/being single, actually made it even more imperative for me to prepare. Preparing for death was even more imperative because, if I were to pass, my family would be at a loss for where my money is located. They would not know what bills I pay, what bank accounts I possess, or what investment accounts I own. This problem would be even more exacerbated due to the fact that since I travel most of the year, I have as many of my accounts as possible deliver information electronically. This means my family would not even have a paper trail for some of my accounts. Thinking about these issues showed me that preparing for death was about more than just creating a will.
Realizing that preparing for death was about more than just a will, I set about trying to figure out the best way to inform my family about the accounts that I own. While thinking, I was reminded of a podcast episode I had heard on the ChooseFI podcast. This episode featured guest Chelsea Brennan, and on it she talks about creating the Family Emergency Binder. I realized from her description of the Family Emergency Binder that it sounded perfect to fulfill my needs. I especially like how Chelsea sums up the purpose of the Family Emergency Binder on her website, “If an emergency separated you from your family or you passed away unexpectedly, would they have what they needed to keep the business of your life in motion? The Family Emergency Binder puts the information your family would need at their fingertips.”
As mentioned above, I realized that my family would not have the information they need to keep the business of my life in motion. To be frank, they would be completely lost. I began thinking about how stressful it would be to have my family not only dealing with my passing, but having to try to figure out how to pay my credit card bills, the numerous different investment accounts I have, etc. This spurred me to purchase the Family Emergency Binder, which thankfully is delivered electronically.
Upon receiving the binder I was very impressed with how in depth it is and how easy it is to fill everything out. The binder covers everything. It has a place to list my bills, bank accounts, and investment accounts. It also has places to list my doctors, family contacts, and other information that would be important, but not normally found in a will. The binder has sections for your social media handles and log ins, places to put in your military information if you served, and numerous other helpful sections that would be important for your surviving family to know.
One benefit I didn’t expect is that the binder encourages you put in a copy of your passport, birth certificate, and social security card. I realized that I actually had no idea where my birth certificate or social security card were, as I leave them with my family due to my traveling. I now have recorded in my Family Emergency Binder the location of my cards, as well as digital copies.
While this doesn’t currently apply to me, the Family Emergency Binder has spaces for you to list information about your children’s favorite toys, foods, and their normal daily routine. This is important because if something tragic were to happen to you, the caregivers who are left could hopefully ease the trauma in some small way by maintaining a routine. It even has a section that you can write letters to your spouse, letters to your parents, or any personal notes you want to include.
As can be seen above, the Family Emergency Binder includes a lot of information that you would not want getting out. What I recommend, and what I did once I downloaded the binder, was to save a copy as a dmg file on my computer (at least if you have a Mac). Saving a copy as a dmg file allows you to password protect the file. You can find more information on how to do that here.
All of the above to say, I believe getting something like the Family Emergency Binder is a huge help and something that should be done by people sooner rather than later. I went back and looked through my records and realized that I downloaded my copy in 2019. After downloading my copy, I committed probably the worst offense of the binder. I was really excited to have it, and knew how much it would help my family if something tragic were to happen, so filled out probably 3/4 of the information. I told myself I would go back shortly and finish filling it out and then email copies to my family. Sadly, I did not do this. So, I am committing here that before I publish “Let’s Talk About Death, Part 2” that I will have completed filing out the binder and gotten copies to my family. While filling out the information can seem daunting, it is definitely much easier than your family having to find all this information on their own after you pass.
In Let’s Talk About Death, Part 2 I plan on discussing what I have discovered about creating a will for myself, why I don’t currently have one, and issues associated.
Image by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay
