It’s never too early to start considering your estate plan and preparing for what you want to leave behind. This includes some things, like personal journals, you might not want to leave behind. These are just a few good points made in a recent article from yahoo! finance, “Planning your estate? Decide who gets your passwords—and who will burn your journals.”
If your journals are online, you’ll want to leave the platform information, login name and password of whoever you’ve decided is going to manage the journals after you’ve passed. You might consider following the example of one person, who has a pact with her estate planning attorney and close friend: whoever dies first will burn and delete all of their journals. They don’t have deep, dark secrets; they don’t want hurt feelings or misunderstandings with their family members.
Most estate planning focuses on dividing financial assets and personal possessions and deciding who will be the executor, the person in charge of administering the estate. However, there’s more than real estate and investment accounts to consider. Digital assets need to be addressed, and because they exist online and with no paper trail, they can become problematic.
Estate planning attorneys advise everyone to have an estate plan. Don’t think you have all the time in the world to do it, since we never know when an accident or diagnosis may occur. Think through all of your belongings, digital and otherwise, and make a plan so your loved ones aren’t faced with secrets or surprises.
Think of your estate plan as a kindness to loved ones. They are overwhelmed by grief and not in the best state of mind to make hard decisions, like figuring out what kind of end-of-life care you want. By having estate planning documents with specific directions, you’ve helped them through a tough time.
Some people are really good with details. One woman with no living relatives created a notebook with all her accounts and passwords and specific directions for what she wanted to happen with everything she owned, from real estate to a favorite vase. She also planned her own funeral, knowing there wouldn’t be anyone to do it, and having specific thoughts about what she wanted to occur. She listed the guests to be invited and a menu for the funeral luncheon, including who was to cater it.
Most people don’t go to this level of detail. However, it would be helpful if they did.
Regardless of your age, you’ll need to do some estate planning. Start by taking a look at your accounts. If there’s an option to name a beneficiary to inherit the account upon your death, write in a name. If you’re young, it may be a parent or a sibling. If you’re older, it’s more likely to be a spouse or an adult child. Create a notebook of your own with a list of your accounts, including digital assets.
Consult an estate planning attorney to create a will, and don’t neglect a Power of Attorney and a Healthcare Power of Attorney. These last two documents will permit a person of your choosing to take over financial and legal matters in case of incapacity. A healthcare power of attorney, sometimes called a healthcare proxy, lets a person of your choice make decisions regarding healthcare on your behalf. If you don’t have these documents, your loved ones will need to go to court and obtain guardianship and/or conservatorship if you’re too sick or are injured and can’t communicate your wishes.
For some families, the arrival of the holiday season offers many opportunities to discuss their hopes and plans. Even if you only touch on a few points, it might be a good time to start the conversation, providing clarity and promoting the understanding that these topics must be discussed in advance.
Reference: yahoo! finance (Oct. 24, 2024) “Planning your estate? Decide who gets your passwords—and who will burn your journals”