This is what the LORD says: “Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die.” — (2 Kings 20:1).
The beginning of the year is usually the time most people get their homes in order. Among these of course, is usually decluttering among others, one’s kitchen like getting rid of unused or expired items, removing packaging to clear up valuable space, organizing the kitchen to be more user-friendly, storing items so they’re easily accessible, storing “like-items” together, get creative by turning useless items into useable storage containers, and remembering that less could sometimes be more.
Also of equal importance is updating your financial affairs, formalizing your funeral plans, and possibly mending family fences and broken bridges. After shoving away all the suspicions about writing wills, tick off the Checklist before it really could get to be too late. Remember, you are never too young, too old, too rich, or too poor: organizing The Checklist should be undertaken by anyone, any man, any woman, even youth.
After checking several Checklists, the one from Greenspring assisted living’s ‘The Villager,’ Les Burger highlights a good four-section list as follows namely Official Documents, Financial Information, Resident-Related Information, and Other Vital Information.
Official Documents
1. Health care proxy (this is someone that will make decisions on your health care when you are incapacitated. This section should have your directives (do not resuscitate, cremate, bury next to ….). include doctors’ names and their contact details.
2. An up-to-date last will and testament or trust.
3. Personal note to your family.
4. Selection of your Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, and trust documents.
5. List of bank account(s); safe deposit box(es) and their location, numbers, keys.
6. Check books(s) location, authorized signatures, and any automatic bill payment information.
7. Funeral, cemetery, crematory information: selection of funeral service/ceremony.
Financial Information
1. Name of a lawyer, accountant, or financial adviser and their contact information.
2. Current contract(s), certificate(s), loan(s) (to/from) still in effect.
3. Copies of active credit/debit bank cards (images of the front and back) and payment dates.
4. Life and property insurance information (renters, auto, other valuables).
5. Pensions, investment account(s) with numbers, international foreign account(s), contact information.
6. Tax information.
7. Real estate, business holdings, royalties, operating agreements including stocks held.
Resident-Related Information
1. Any rental property(ies) you hold; review this annually.
2. End-of-life instructions (dealing with your house/apartment), pet care (if applicable, location of items, friends to be contacted, self-written obituary.
3. Contracts
4. Information for your family about emptying (reorganization) of apartment/house, returning keys (especially if company house, refurbishing costs, any unfinished projects, and costs.
5. Storage unit(s), location, number, key, or lock combination.
Other Vital Information.
1. Copy of Driver’s License, or national ID, and medical insurance cards.
2. Certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, and property.
3. Passport.
4. Updated list of passwords for internet accounts, cellphones, online financial billing accounts, and removal of online social media or email accounts (such as Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail…).
5. Auto registration, title, distribution of other personal possessions and those not wanted.
Decluttering the kitchen and other parts of the house is a great exercise, however, the construction of a Checklist that gives a step-by-step itemization of the end-of-life things your family members will do when you become incapacitated and eventually pass on. The Checklist does not mean one is dying tomorrow, it does mean one’s relations will take advantage and push one over the edge.
The checklist is to guide one’s family how one’s family in the eventuality of death or severe illness. It is a preparation for the “what if” of life. We all have our “what ifs.” Let us all get busy constructing the Checklist. Let us get this out today.