[rjm1cc]

Originally Posted by l2ridehd

You need to have everything documented the way you want it. I maintain a book fondly called the EOL book. (end of life) It contains details on the following topics. And I am always finding different things to add.

Here are the things that I've covered in my book. I try to either update them annually or reference where readers can find recent details. Financial information is protected with a strong password that can be found in our safe deposit box.

Part 1. Immediate needs
Included here are: Addresses, email and phone contact information of our doctors, estate attorney, tax accountant and other people important in our lives. Funeral, obituary and burial directions. How to notify the Social Security Administration, pension and annuity administrators and investment funds and brokers.

Part 2. Wills and trusts
The category covers: Our living will and will. Power of Attorney. Executor. Investment beneficiaries. Who gets what personal items. Trusts and trustees. Locations of important items.

Part 3. Important actions
This is a guide to the following: Time-sensitive actions (taxes, required minimum distributions, etc.). Trips already reserved. Award points that can be used and associated instructions. Maintenance of home, other real estate, cars. I also keep a log of home-maintenance records including names and phones for each repair job.

Part 4. Financial management
This section includes records about: Regular income, automatic bill payments, sources of cash. Investments and real estate. Instructions for record-keeping. Credit card information. Life, health, house, auto, liability and any other insurance records. Taxes and data required. Passwords and IDs. Ledger of financial actions. Charitable-contribution information.

Part 5. Location
This is an extensive list of where things are that would be needed to settle estate and pay taxes.

At some point we'll make a copy of the Book for each of our children and our executor. Perhaps that will be when one of them notices our dementia and says they need a copy. What won't be easy is going through the tons of stuff we have saved in pictures and papers that fill boxes in the basement and file drawers in various places around the house—things we're not brave enough to toss out ourselves yet. We keep telling ourselves that we just have to eliminate the clutter, but we have trouble getting around to it. The Death Book comes first. The survivors can just dump the rest.

Might consider a copy on a USB drive and giving that to your children now for future use. Could put a password on it. Also consider a copy in the cloud. The idea is to get to the book quickly and easily.
I would get to the clean up now. Your children will appreciate it.