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nc IA | Your doing better then most, and should be commended for that attitude and approach.
My parents passed Dec 17 (Dad) and May 18 (Mom). I'm the only child. 74 & 68, prostate cancer found way too late on Dad, and a relapse of lymphoma that caused a ruptured colon & complications on Mom. Mom's I think was directly related to the many many decades of arthritus medications she was on (since late 20's).
Mom was the primary person on 5 estates over the course of about as many years. This coupled with her background working payroll for the county, and backroom at a bank before that gave her a good understanding of what was needed to be done, and how having it arranged ahead makes a crappy situation relatively easier to deal with, or at least doesn't add to the stress already present.
It doesn't have to be complicated. She had a notebook for everyone.
Notebook had copies of birth and marriage certificates in it (I since scanned them)
Copies of will, power of attorney, medical power of attorney.
Important dates and SSN numbers
A listing of accounts, with contact numbers for the companies. Think retierement accounts, bank, CD's, IRA's.
Insurance policies -contact and details.
Home / realestate info
Any loan info if relevent - dates / amounts / rates etc.
Service info / details
Song ideas
Pulbearer list
rough draft of obit, have the school info / history / etc already
meal requests or ideas
memorial requests
When Dad passed - everything went to mom, I helped out physically, but she had it all under control paperwork wise.
Mom went then and swapped over things like her vehicle and bank accounts to joint with myself, your wife and you are already in this boat though, this is really a big deal as then a couple months later when she was hospitalized I was able to seamlessly take care of paying bills / writing checks for the utilties, insurance, etc. Saved a ton of time and headaches.
I would caution should that day come - keep an estate account open for a while after you think all is done with a few dollars in it just to keep it open. Months after we had the K1 for Dad a random check came made out to him, was a royal pain to get cashed without the joint or estate account left open. So i'm leaving the one for my mom open till sometime this summer after it's been over 1 year since she passed. Estate is closed / K1 filed, but some random stuff could still show up.
As to prepaying, I'm leary myself - that should be so far in the future - how does one know that a given funeral home will be viable / in business?
I'd lean towards a CD or maybe even investment account managed by the bank or someplace? This way you get a larger interest rate / gain, but you still have physical control of your funds.
The other thing I would consider though, is if you both are sure where you wish to rest, then maybe buying the plot now and having that info in the book would be a good investment of resources in advance. Along with that, you could have your family stone if such done now and not be an expense later, other then the dating which is minor.
I'm thinking I should be turned back to fertilizer and airdropped onto my farm.... But that my not fly.... bad pun intended...
Mom's prep work on the notebook saved me a bunch of time, aggravation, and allowed me to focus more on her wishes and the family and friends.
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Prepaying & making payments on final expenses
