Hashing out plans for your death is not something you should take lightly. It involves a lot of thinking and planning to make the experience easier for your loved ones both financially and emotionally.
There are some actions you should take after completing your estate planning documents to ensure that the people you love will know what they should do and how they should do it. Getting your loved ones through the difficulty of your death means making sure they can find what they need to move forward. We suggest leaving a letter of instruction to help facilitate a smoother transition during an emotionally hard time.
Where is your will?
Right after your death, it falls to your family to locate the paperwork they need to begin the probate process. What if they do not know where these items are? When you create your will, you need to decide where to store the original. Not only that, but you should also provide copies to important people so they can refer to it after you die. On these copies, you should indicate where the original is and how they can access it to start probate.
What about passwords?
Dying and leaving instructions to find your will is one way to help your family out. But you should also leave updated passwords so they can access accounts to do things, such as turning off unnecessary utilities or finding assets and debts to list for probate court. Again, give this information or the location of it to one or two trusted people so that they may begin getting your affairs in order after your death.
