When A Loved One Dies and Planning for Survivors

by Karen L. Brady

This recent post on frugalzeitgeist caught my attention. I haven’t read all the posts in this blog, but I gather the author has recently had a death in the family.

I appreciate that the author is trying to reach out and help survivors. Although people who engage in estate planning are my clients, the real beneficiaries of the planning are primarily the survivors. We can’t plan to eliminate the grief, but we can plan to minimize the possibility that the grief will be compounded by the hassle, cost, and family infighting that can occur as a result of the death.

That’s why we have successor trustee training to introduce the survivors to their roles in the living trust. It’s so much easier for the “future survivors” to begin this learning process when they aren’t in the middle of the grieving process. We don’t offer this training program for clients who only do wills with us, but we do work to make sure that there are comprehensive written instructions for the survivors.

What you can do is review our Checklist for Survivors on this website and/or What To Do When Someone Dies by the Colorado Bar Association. Then, consider calling us so that it’s easier for the people you leave behind.