Death Binder / End of Life Planner

Planning for estate & end of life arrangements will make a difficult time easier for your family. Get organized now with this free End-of-Life Checklist.

I am not sure where to start or what to include.

Starting with a basic: Order is not important. Gathering all the information

Continous Planning

Update the details every year
The Transfer on Death Designation Affidavit (TOD), when properly recorded, permits the direct transfer of the described real property to the designated beneficiary or beneficiaries upon the death of the owner, thus avoiding Probate administration

First thing to do

Funeral arrangement

Details about the funeral arrangment

After a few weeks, Checklist.

Open a new bank account with only one name
Get a death certificate - How to get one?
Register with Social Security Administration
Apply for social security survivor benefits - https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/survivors/
Call insurance company <phone number/name> to arrange life insurance payout.
Transfer properties
Transfer accounts

Wills & Lawyers

Is there a will? Who has it? Where is it?
Lawyers information

Insurance

Health Insurance

Name of the company
Yearly premium
Contact information

Life insurance

List all life insurance details.

Type of life insurance? Term / Whole life?
Name on the insurance
Name of the company
Yearly premium
beneficiary
What to do instructions?

Employer life insurance

Important contact information

List all important contact information

Accountant
Insurance Agents
financial advisor
schools (if you have kids).
Doctors
Trusted friends & family
Household contractors - lawn service, AC cleaner, handyman
Bank Manager

Name / Profession

PHone Number
Reasons/how can they help

Documents

Keep photocopies of important documents with the binder & location of the originals

Birth certificates
Marriage Certificate
Tax Documents (last 7 years).
Passports
ID Cards

This section contains a list of accounts, information that you need to pass to your family.

Bills

Monthly Bills

List of monthly Bills & when to pay

Quarterly Bills

List of quarterly Bills & when to pay

Yearly Bills

List of Yearly Bills & when to pay

Subscription Details

Example - Netflix, icloud etc.

List of Financial Accounts

Accounts

Bank Accounts

List of bank accounts. Approximate balance.
Which to keep it open & which to close

Bank Lockers

Where is it?
Who has access?
What's in it?

Credit Cards

List of credit cards that need to be closed.

Taxable Brokerage Accounts

401k Accounts

List of accounts & what needs to be done
Types of 401k
Where is the account?
Keep it open or close?
Where to transfer?

IRA Accounts

List of accounts & what needs to be done
Types of IRA
Where is the account?
Keep it open or close?
Where to transfer?

529 Accounts

List 529 Accounts
Instructions for what to do?
- Pay for the education
- Transfer all funds to their "Roth IRA" after 15 years from the last deposit.

HSA Accounts

Bonds

Any Treasury, municipal or commercial bonds, that are not part of your retirement accounts

Crypto Accounts/details

Private Equity

Other investment accounts

List of properties

Real estate properties

Address
Deed information
Parcel Number
Mortgage information
- Bank Name
- Interest
- Monthly payment
HOCL
Property taxes details
Direct link to the county property infomration page

Other types of properties

List other types of properties - Rental/vacation

Land

Deed
parcel number
Direct link to the county property information page

Gold/Silver Jewelry

Automobiles/Vehicles

Car

Year
Make
Model
Loan details
Title info.
where is the title?
Registration & Insurance details

Foreign assets

Immigrated family usually has properties back home.

Trusted friends/Family

List of people who can help & what kind of help to ask each person

Investment advise

Do's & don'ts

What to do with insurance payouts?
What to do with savings
What to do with investments/retirement accounts
What to do with business

Step by step investment advice.

Keep $xx,xxxx amount into saving account for a yearly expense
Put the rest of the money into the following funds
- 40% in VTI - https://investor.vanguard.com/etf/profile/VTI
- 40% in VOO - https://investor.vanguard.com/etf/profile/VOO
- 20% in bond ???

Yearly changes to investments

What to buy and what not to buy with the money

Kid's education details

How to financially survive

Where will the money come from?
Shortfall in cash?
downsize or not?
- Example - move to a smaller house with a smaller property tax
- Which cars to sell & keep
List of Major yearly expenses
- Property tax
- Health insurance

Online Accounts

Online Security Questions

A lot of bank accounts/financial account has security questions in addition to passwords. You must list them with the passwords so that your surviving family can use the informatin to login to your accounts.

What to avoid? Who to avoid?

Medical history

List health details about each family member
Family medical history - Your kids might need it one day

Digital Document storage

https://www.fidsafe.com/ Secure, free document storage from Fidelity.

Password maanger details

Debts

In the USA at least, if a person dies and leaves behind a bunch of debt, you and anyone else in your family does not pay it off. You let the debt die with that person

They will try and trick you, they will try and get you to pay the debt, but do not fall for it! It is not your responsibility.

Now, they can still take money from the person's estate (That could be the house, or similar). But you and others pay nothing. Now with shared debt, you will be responsible for the payment since it's a joint debt.

Always look into laws about debt when a person dies wherever you live, as each place may be different. Contact an estate attorney after a family member dies.

With student debt: If your parents or legal guardian, co-signed, no. They still owe the debt. Though some places will write them off, not wanting bad publicity.

To do for family

Repost…

Reposting this information for those of you that don’t have your affairs in order

Make sure all bank accounts have direct beneficiaries. The beneficiary need only go to the bank with your death certificate and an ID of their own.

TOD = Transfer On Death deed if you own a home. Completing this document and filing it with your county saves your heirs THOUSANDS. This document allows you to transfer ownership of your home to your designee. All they need to do is take their ID and your death certificate to the county building and the deed is signed over. Doing this will avoid the home having to go through probate.
Living Will: Allows one to put in writing exactly what you want done in the event you cannot speak for yourself when it comes to healthcare decisions
Durable Power of Attorney: Allows one to designate a person to make legal decisions if one is no longer competent to do so.
Power of Attorney for Healthcare: This document allows one to designate someone to make healthcare decisions for their person.
Last Will and Testament: Designates to whom personal belongings will go too.
Funeral Planning Declaration: allows one to say exactly one’s wishes as far as disposition of the body and the services.
If the above documents are done, at least in MI and Indiana, you can AVOID probate. If all the above is not done, you have to open an estate account at the bank. All money that doesn’t have direct beneficiaries goes into this account. You have to have an attorney to open the estate account. The attorney also has to publicize your passing in the paper etc., to allow anyone to make a claim on your property. - It’s a complete PAIN.
Make a list of all banks and account numbers, all investment institutions with account numbers, lists of credit cards, utility accounts, etc. Leave clear instructions as to how and when these things are paid. Make sure heirs knows where life insurance policies are located.
Make 100% sure SOMEONE knows your Apple ID, bank ID account logins and passwords!!!! (Mom had a little binder with all of this! )
Make sure you have titles for all vehicles, campers, etc!
MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!! - Talk with those closest to you and make all your wishes KNOWN. Talk to those whom you’ve designated, as well as those close to you whom you did not designate. - Do this to explain why your decisions were made and to avoid any lingering questions or hurt feelings.

We were fortunate that dad had almost everything in order. A huge blessing g to us was that he had pre planned and prepaid his funeral just a couple of days after mom died. Sadly, he had planned on doing a TOD deed for the house the Monday after he died. Had he been able to complete that, it would have saved thousands in attorney fees and we could have avoided having to probate the estate.

Hope this helps! Hope this lights a spark to encourage all my friends and family to take care of these things to make it easier for those we’ll leave behind!

*** I am NOT an attorney. The above is all simply lessons that I’ve learned on my own. Of course only you can make decisions for yourself! My hope is that the above list at least helps you start an important conversation with your loved ones and an attorney that can help you complete all the necessary steps. ***

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