Have you got your affairs in order?\u00a0 Dave Ramsey calls it a Legacy Box, my uncle called it an Estate Book, and I call it an act of love.\u00a0 The person who will be in charge of deciphering and fulfilling your wishes needs to know the who, what, when, where, and how to do it.<\/p>\n
If you haven\u2019t already done so, get yourself a Durable Power of Attorney.\u00a0 This legal document allows the person of your choosing to act on your behalf when you are unable to.\u00a0 Now is the time to have that prepared, while you can still make decisions for yourself. It\u2019s never too early to have this in place.\u00a0 If you are sixty or older, the Davis and Associates, Legal Counseling for the Elderly can provide that service for free through their connection with the Area Agency on Aging. \u00a0If you are currently caring for someone else, you know that a POA is required to make any medical or financial decisions for them.<\/p>\n
Next, have a Last Will and Testament made even if you don\u2019t have a lot of money. If you do have a large or complicated estate, you may need to create a Revocable Trust to carry our your financial wishes.\u00a0 An Estate Planning Attorney can help you designate your long range plans. \u00a0Once you have made decisions concerning what goes to whom after you die, let your family members know what is in your Will and why.\u00a0 This will help prevent any surprises and hard feelings between your heirs after you\u2019re gone.<\/p>\n
You may want to authorize a HIPPA Release in order to allow access to your medical records.\u00a0 An Advanced Directive for Health Care (Living Will and Health Care Proxy) is also necessary to make your medical wishes known.\u00a0 Again, you can call Alec Brown of Davis and Associates at 251-434-6848 for this free service.<\/p>\n
Now place these documents in a labeled folder or box.\u00a0 In addition, add any other pertinent financial and identifying information you have.\u00a0 This includes bank account numbers and passwords needed to access them, insurance policies, burial plans and policies, social security cards and photo ID, financial investments, Bonds, Retirement Accounts, Property information and documents, and car titles.\u00a0 You would be kind to include contact information of people you have dealt with that will be helpful in settling everything.\u00a0 Phone numbers of friends and family is also helpful in communicating your death.\u00a0 You may even want to write your obituary and include it. The location of the security box key is important but remember that someone else\u2019s name needs to be on that box so it can be accessed after your death. \u00a0Include everything a person would need to know to carry out what you normally handle.\u00a0 Put your spouse\u2019s information in there as well.\u00a0 Passwords for internet activity including social media like Facebook are necessary to access photos, etc.<\/p>\n
Granted this is all valuable information and should be kept in a secure place.\u00a0 Either make copies for your entrusted family members or appointed executor so they can access the information when the time comes.\u00a0 Compiling this information before your death is one of the most loving acts you can do for your family.\u00a0 Make a list of what you need to do and begin the process.\u00a0 None of us will avoid death. Start today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you got your affairs in order?\u00a0 Dave Ramsey calls it a Legacy Box, my uncle called it an Estate Book, and I call it an act of love.\u00a0 The person who will be in charge of deciphering and fulfilling your wishes needs to know the who, what, when, where, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,10,21],"tags":[36,128,140,146,177,180],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-publication","category-financial-topic","category-personal","tag-advanced-directive","tag-durable-power-of-attorney","tag-estate-planning","tag-financial-planning","tag-last-will-and-testament","tag-legacy-box"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4cxZR-dH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2569,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/2569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.caregiversunite.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}