What preparations, if any, have you made for your own death or disability?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Will, living will, durable power of attorney, copies of all in our fire safe and on file with our attorney. Life insurance for both of us and on the kids, disability insurance for me(as breadwinner). Savings accounts for all the kids, with them as beneficiaries. Agreements with primary and secondary caretakers for the children, directives as to their care, and trusts set up using any money from the estate to care for them if they’re still minors.

We did all of the above because we think it’s the right thing to do to plan for the worst while hoping for the best. We owe it to the children to have this reasonably well handled.

Male, married, father of five, ~35.

I do need to do something about writing up instructions on how to access our accounts and how to set up our pr0n to self-destruct in the event of our death. If either of us survives the other can deal with it, but if neither of us does, then I want to be sure it goes the way of the dodo too. Cleaning up my dad’s pr0n after he keeled over wasn’t the fun experience you might think it would be for an 18 year old. He had horrible taste. I mean, lawyer pr0n, really? v. unenjoyable watching.

Enjoy,
Steven

22

We have substantial assets and my husband is a high income earner, so it’s not an issue. If I were to prematurely kick off, he’d probably experience a net financial gain. :slight_smile:

23

Married, age 50ish, 2 underage kids.
Regular will and financial power of attorney.
Trusts set up for both kids (“special needs” for Dweezil, regular for Moon Unit, both to be largely funded out of our estates.
Have not set up the medical power of attorney / living will paperwork, but we really need to. I’d just as soon not be kept in brain-dead limbo.
Long-term-care insurance (for me, not for Typo Knig).
Each of us has in the neighborhood of 1M in life insurance. Mostly term insurance which would go away when we turn 70; some whole insurance which will still be good after that.

The other thing, not on the list, is a revocable living trust. We opted not to set one of those up some years back but should probably do so; it’ll speed up the probate process when the time comes.

24

23, female, no will or anything (is that too young to make one? I feel like I’d wait until I got married and had kids, like other folks here have). I’ve mostly just told folks I want my body to be donated. No casket or funeral or anything (if my family wants to organize some sort of memorial service, fine, I just don’t want them to feel like they have to pay out the ass for something big and expensive).

I often wonder if any of that would come to fruition if I were to die, say, tomorrow. I do want all of this in writing eventually, I just don’t know if I can do that yet.

25

Female, married, 44, two kids.

We both have life insurance - more in his case as he has a slightly risky job, less in mine as when we took it out I had less to insure. Enough to cover the house should either of us die with a bit more for living expenses if he should pop his clogs rather than me.

He has a will, leaving everything to me (in Japan half automatically goes to the kids - we circumvented this so that the house, which is in his name only, will be mine to do with as I wish). I have no will as Japanese inheritance laws are simple. As I don’t own any property, half of my belongings will go to hub, the other half divided between our children.

No living will, not sure if they exist in Japan yet or not. I do worry about my future years. I’m hoping to die quickly or be so senile I don’t know anything about it. I do worry about funerals in that if my husband were to die before his parents we’d be stuck with the whole huge $30,000 buddhist job that they’d expect and demand and that neither of us want. On the other hand, a letter from him with explicit instructions would also be ignored… So we leave that one. He knows that I want simple and cheap but again, could he buck the system enough to actually do this? A lot of funeral stuff is done by the neighbourhood and work friends to a set pattern, and simply “happens” to the family. Funerals also take place within 24 hours or so, so I can’t imagine fighting any of this while still trying to process what has happened… Also there is a custom of giving money at funerals so a lot of these costs do come from said neighbours and work friends. That one is best left untouched for the sake of family peace and neighbourhood harmony.

Bank accounts etc are only in single names here and are frozen on death till the will is dealt with, usually a month to six weeks later. There is a lot of housewife gossip about grabbing your husband’s seal and stripping the bank account before he dies or before registering the death to ensure you have cash to survive. I can’t actually get access to two of my husband’s accounts as they are with his work. We solved this problem by having two emergency cash accounts in each name with a bit of cash permanently left in each one.

26

I’ve done nothing! I’m 31, single, no kids and ridiculously few personal items. I have massive student loans so I have no assets. There really isn’t a point at the moment.

I have made it clear to my parents that should I die, I do NOT want my body to be embalmed. Other than that, I really don’t care what decisions they make with regard to my remains.

27

I have done nothing.

I have no family, no life, no money, and no legacy. I will be forgotten within a year of my passing. There’s really no point in my doing anything.

Perhaps one day things will change. I am not anticipating any such thing.

Male.
Single.
No kids.
40.

28

Female, single, 47, no kids.

Do you have a regular will? A living will? Life insurance? Does anyone have your medical power of attorney? Is anyone payable-on-death on your checking account?

Have a regular and living will, life insurance (through work and bank accounts), long and short term disability, legal and medical POAs.

                                                                                                                                              *If you have done all of the above, or more, what made you decide to do it?*

Regular will when my SO passed inestate. It was a pain to get everything settled. Living will around the time of Terri Schiavo. I wouldn’t want two of my sisters having a say in whether heroic measures are taken, should I become incapcitated. Legal and medical POAs when I was hospitalized about a year and a half ago.

I’ve taken measures to ensure that people I trust will be making decisions for me, should I become unable, that there is money should I become disabled, money to dispose of my mortal remains (and buy at least a case of whiskey for the wake :stuck_out_tongue: ) and some leftover to cover outstanding debt and contribute to the education of a couple of the kids in my world.

29

The joke’s on you, MrExcellent-there ain’t no sich critter.

At the funeral homes around here, they advertise 800 dollar cremation, but, when everthing else is factored in, 3200 minimum, or you aren’t getting cooked. They don’t tell you that in the ad, of course. They tell you that when you are there with little Daphne’s body, or sometime similar.

YMMV, and a word to the wise.
Best wishes,
hh

30

Female, 42, married, 2 adult children.

We have wills, life insurance, life insurance on our mortgage, disability insurance on my husband through work. I’m now contracting so I should probably consider a personal policy for that. We don’t have living wills but unless both of us are disabled at the same time I’m not terribly worried about that.

As for funeral arrangements, one thing that’s become clear over the last couple of years is that you need to have someone fairly unemotional dealing with the funeral home. They LOVE to guilt you into spending way more money than necessary. I would suggest that you carefully consider your executor when making your will. It’s really really hard on someone who is particularly close to you to be dealing with both grief and the legal matters around your death. The ideal candidate is someone who cares deeply about your beneficiaries but is less close to you.

31

I have all of these except the last, don’t know what that means. I mean, my wife, as NoK, has access to my accounts immediately (hell, she has access to them now). Our wills both include cremation details too.

We set it up this way when we did our prenup, 11 years ago, with provision for kids already worked in too. I’m a married very-late 30s male with one kid.

32

Payable-on-death on a checking or other such account means that a person other than the primary account holder has an ownership interest in the account that kicks in only on the primary account’s death, and only on the account holder’s death, thus allowing said account to skip probate (I think: I could be wrong about the mechanics of probate). It has a few virtues over joint tenancy with right of survivorship, in which both persons have equal rights and responsibilities for the account.

Let’s say my stepdaughter is POD on my checking and savings accounts (which in fact she is). If I die, all she needs to do is to take my death certificate and and her ID to the bank to get access to the money in the account, as it is automatically her property. But she can’t write checks on the account while I am alive, nor can the bank raid my account if she were to overdraw her checking account at the same institution and we were JTWRoS.

For a distinction, my little sister has power of attorney on my accounts. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow and am in the hospital, she can write checks to pay my bills. But she doesn’t have an ownership interest in the account either. If I die, her ability to access the accounts cease. Little Sister Rhymer also has my durable & medical power of attorney; we filled out a specific one for the bank because, when I was a bank CSR, it was always easier for the attorney-in-fact to exercise her or his, um, powers if the bank had the paperwork on file. We’d honor one that wasn’t done through us; it just took longer.

33

Life, disability, and long term care insurance policies. Must arrange for the other features sometime soon.

34

Female, 25, single, no children.

I’ve done next to nothing. No will and no life insurance. I have told my mother and have it in writing that on the event of my demise I want any viable organs donated.

If I were to have children or marry, this would change. I’ve decided that if I have a child, and if the father is absent/unfit, I would make a will so that my best friend would get my child, not my mother.

35

Female, single, have two nephews one of whom is my godson but no children, 42yo.

I’ve verified that the people who’d get my stuff if I died are the ones I would put in my will and in the order I would; a will could speed things up but it’s not strictly necessary.

My mother, brothers and SiL-cum-GP know I don’t want “extraordinary measures”; neither do Mom and the Bros (I don’t know about SiL). Littlebro and I know each other’s list of insurances and bank accounts. My acounts will be accessible to my inheritors once it has been shown that there is no will; the insurances include mortgage insurance (so if I die before paying my flat off, the insurance pays for it), the insurance I had to take while I worked in Switzerland per Swiss Social Security requirements, and a pack including life, car and house. The mortgage and the pack are with the same company.

I am co-owner of my mother’s two bank accounts, in order to make me able to access and close them off with only the death certificate. She does have a will, but it’s old, it’s the one where Dad and her made each other his/her universal inheritor. Since Dad is dead and there is nothing listed about any special splits between the Bros and me, the split is the same as if she had no will: 1/3 to each of us.

If I’m disabled, depending on the type and level of disability I’ll need to sell the flat; I’d like to trade it at some point in the future for one that’s wheelchair accessible both in case I end up disabled and in case my mother does. I also want to make a will once I’ve been able to tuck some money away for the nephews, to list it specifically.

36

I’m a 25-year-old woman, unmarried in a LTR, no kids, no assets (most of what I own is clothes that would only fit my sisters and books).

I do have a piece of paper stating which friends my pets will go to (they have all agreed verbally to take them - but really it’s their choice what they do with the dog/cat once I’m gone, I don’t expect a lifetime commitment).

As soon as I have a baby I will be determining a guardian should her father and I die in some freak accident, drawing up papers for that, and getting life insurance. I’m a worrier anyway, but my father nearly died and was severely brain damaged by a ruptured brain aneurysm - which is highly heritable, quite difficult to detect before disaster strikes, and more common in women - at a young age, so I’ve always assumed it would be wise for me to take precautions against a sudden death/severe brain injury. Unfortunately disability insurance doesn’t cover brain damage from aneurysm, it’s considered a pre-existing condition.

37

Please give your gender, marital status, parenting status, and approximate age (±10 years, say) in your answer. Or not. It’s not like I’m waiting around with a wiffle bat to punish the disobedient.
[/QUOTE]

I have a regular will, a living will, life insurance, and medical power of attorney to my husband. We have a joint checking account, so it would go to my husband, but there’s no one else on the account. He has all the same stuff, as we did it at the same time. If we die at the same time, I suppose someone will have to figure out how to get to the money in the bank, but our son won’t starve while they do so.

I wanted a will because I feel like it’s the responsible thing to do. We did not have children at the time, but were pursuing adoption, and it was one of the things that I did to get ready. I was less aware of the other documents (living will, medical power of attorney), but when we went to the appointment with the attorney, who is also a friend of ours, he said, “I can do a will, or I can do the whole package. I recommend the whole package.” His price was quite reasonable for all of it, and so we got it all done.

I’m a 35-year old woman, married seven years. I have a not-quite-two-year-old son, and hopefully another child soon (we’re on the list to adopt again).

ETA: I am not the primary income earner at this time, but I do have life insurance - if something happened to me, my husband would need to arrange for childcare, and that would be much easier with a hunk of money from life insurance lying around. Plus, I’m younger than he is, and it’s cheeeeap for me. So why not.

38

I am male, 48 and single. I was going to make a will, but the lawyer told me to save my money since I had planned to leave it all to my mother - he said it would all go to her anyway.

I have thought about a living will but do not have one.

I have life insurance which should cover the cost of my cremation and then some. But won’t make anyone rich.

If I become disabled I don’t know what I would do.

39

See similar polldone a few months back.

40

That’s making my head hurt… :frowning: