[l2ridehd]

The best action any of us could take is to create a "Death Book" or Final information and Wishes" book with all the information necessary for your family or friends to handle your demise. It is something we will ALL do at some point and it is the one thing you can plan for now that will happen.

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