Before You Depart:
Preparing For The Unexpected

Your last will and testament are of vital importance to your survivors.  Having a current will on file with your lawyer, and right here, can make things flow much more smoothly for your family.  Plus, it’s YOUR STUFF, and you should have the last word in who gets what.  With a will, you get that last word.  Without a will, the State gets it.  If you have kids, you can set up trusts for them and select the trustee yourself.  If your children are young, you can name their guardian(s).

You should also appoint someone to make decisions for you if you can’t.  This person will have your power of attorney, and it’s important that this agent be someone you trust, because he/she will have the authority to utilize your bank account, sign your name, and sell everything you own, including your car and your house.  Once you die, this person’s power of attorney becomes void, and the person you designated as your executor becomes the person in charge of your estate.

If you have specific wishes as to feeding tubes or any kind of extraordinary measures in case of terminal or incurable illness, or if, God forbid, you are one day in a vegetative condition, you need a Living Will, and a health care power of attorney.  Choose carefully, for this person can make all medical decisions for you, including pulling the plug and donating your organs.  If you’ve specified these decisions in your will, this person will make sure your desires are carried out.

Be sure your beneficiaries, whether in your will, your insurance policies, or whatever, are updated regularly.  If you’re not careful, all your ’stuff’ will go to your parents instead of your spouse and children, or whoever you would have wanted it to go to.

Click around on YouDeparted, before you turn your computer off.  There are tons of very informative information here that can be of immense help to you.

The word “estate” seems odd to many people.  We just don’t think of our possessions as being an “estate!”  Estates are what rich people who live in mansions have; people like us just have ’stuff.’  However, most people have more possessions than we might think, at first.  There’s the house, the car, the bank accounts (no matter how small) the collection of Hummel figurines, and 60 years’ worth of Superman comic books. . . .

And don’t forget your life insurance policies.

Be sure you have a will!  Even just to make sure your nephew Andy gets the comic books, everyone needs a will.  If you have a spouse and kids, a will is even more important.  Even if you’re alone, wouldn’t you really prefer to give your ’stuff’ to someone in particular, rather than let the State get it all?  Sure you would.

Even if you’re married, don’t think for a moment that you don’t need a will; in some states, if a spouse dies and there’s no will, half the estate goes to the surviving spouse and the other half goes to. . . the deceased’s PARENTS!  And do you really want your children to come into their share of your estate before they’re 21?

Even if your estate isn’t sucked dry by the State, you don’t want your things fought over by your relatives, either.  Make a will.

Then store it right here at YouDeparted, along with all of your other personal papers and requests and bequests and policies, so that when the time comes, your selected executor can access it all in one place.

It would be a such a very considerate thing for you to do for your loved ones.

Many people choose cremation these days.  If you register your wants with YouDeparted, your survivors will know exactly what you want and are far more likely to carry out your wishes if it’s been made easy to do that.  And YouDeparted makes it very easy indeed.

On the quirky side of cremation, if there is such a thing, and believe me, there is, think for a minute about Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland, man and wife, famous celebrities, both of them.

When Bronson’s wife Jill Ireland died, she requested that her ashes be made into a walking stick for her husband, and because she had made those wishes known, she got her wish, and so did Bronson.  He carried that walking stick, made of his wife’s ashes, until the day he died, himself.  The walking stick was buried with him.

You probably don’t want your ashes turned into a walking stick, but even if you do, if you make that request known, and register it with us here at YouDeparted, then you can rest assured (and in peace) that your wishes will be carried out.  Just like these people’s wishes were.

Survivors have to be strong, especially if they have to handle all of a deceased loved one’s business without the benefit of a service like YouDeparted.

When my uncle died last year, his estate was a mess. His insurance papers were “somewhere” in the house. His bills started to pile up, because the executor of his estate, my mother, couldn’t get into his house to find them, and his will, which named her as executor, was in the house, buried under piles of paper and clutter. She didn’t even know the name of his lawyer, who could have cleared up a lot of the confusion if only he’d been contacted.

A year later, Mom is still being dunned by bill collectors, real estate companies, the State of Indiana, the funeral home, the Veteran’s Administration, and various utilities. She gives out the same information over the phone six or seven times a day, and that’s down from the dozens of times a day it was just a few months ago.

If my uncle had utilized a service such as YouDeparted, his executor’s job would have been made so incredibly easier, and my mother, his sister and executor, would not be bombarded with confusing questions and requirements and even abusive creditors wanting money for debts that are not even hers.

Take my advice, everyone. Make sure your survivors don’t have to endure this kind of treatment. Sign up for a YouDeparted account today. It’s so easy, and everything your executor and your survivors will need will be right here in one place.

Survivors have to be strong, true, but if we can help make their lives a little bit better, why not go for it?

When you hear the word "Survivor," what do you think of?  Those smarmy tv shows, right? 

Let me tell you something you actually already know:  Those tv people aren’t survivors.  Eating worms out of a Dixie cup isn’t being a survivor.  Deciding who will be on your imaginary "tribe" isn’t being a survivor.

A survivor is a person who is still standing after an unimaginable grief.

We here at YouDeparted understand what makes a person a survivor, and we know how hard it is to be one.  We want to make it easier for you to survive, and for your family to survive.   That’s what we’re all about, in fact.

Click around on our website, and see what we’ve got.  People who organize their legal papers, passwords, bank accounts, insurance, etc. are benefiting not only themselves, but also their family and friends.  After we’re gone, we no longer care about such mundane things, but those mundane things can make life difficult for our suvivors.  Or, we can utilize YouDeparted, thus making sure that those who survive us won’t have to grieve for us over and over, while dealing with complicated legalities. 

Let’s all get our ’stuff’ together with YouDeparted.  Our survivors will have enough to deal with; let’s make sure a lot of paperwork isn’t one of them.

Tags: Survivor, password, bank account, will, living will, YouDeparted, legalities, beneficiaries

After several rigorous months of development and testing, the YouDeparted team is taking a quick vacation in Hawaii! We’re soaking up the sun here in Maui, recharging our engines in preparation for the next step which is getting the word out about YouDeparted. We may be on vacation but feel free to contact us with any questions, concerns, and comments.