EOL Issues

 

 

 

"Sometimes at the end of the day, all we really have is the end of the day..."

Not to sound like too much a "Debby Downer" on a cold Tuesday morning, but as of late my wife and I have been knee deep in EOL (End of Life) planning. Not that we are expecting to leave this orb soon (least wise we hope not), once you get to the "three score and five" age, it is time to face the inevitable. And after going through the loss of my wife's brother, father as well as my mother in the past three years, we have had a crash course on the do's and don'ts of estate and funeral planning.

Here are some simple things we have learned to keep in mind for the future:

• Funerals cost a whale of a lot of money. Easy for a modest funeral to cost over $10,000. Cremation will cut that cost down somewhat, but it is still expensive. Failure to financially plan for a decent funeral might end up with the county taking over. It is not a "potter's field", but close.
• Many places offer "final expense" life insurance. Just in case you have spent down most of your assets, a life insurance policy of $25,000 should take care of any funeral expenses as well as miscellaneous items.
• Keep your financial records as clean as possible. Make sure someone in the family has legal power to act in your behalf should you become incapacitated. A Power of Attorney document works very well so long as you are still alive. However, they become void upon your death. There is also Perpetual Power of Attorney authority which will last after your death, but few have them.
• If you die suddenly, there will be very little, if any, end of life medical costs. However, if you die slowly, the costs can really add up. If you need to go into a full care center, the costs are through the roof. Family assets will be needed to pay for these expenses. Once the assets are gone, most times the country will step in. Having some kind of Long Term Care insurance will help protect family assets. Word to the wise - Long Term Care insurance is not cheap, and gets less so every year you wait to purchase it.
• Finally, while you are healthy, start to downsize. Get rid of "junk". When my dad died 11 years ago, we had to get my mother out of the house they lived in for 50 years - and it had 50 years of "junk" in it. What a mess. Donate, recycle, sell, or throw. Do your kids and grandkids a favor - get rid of it.

Well I am sure there are more, but these are the things that we have struggled with after the recent death of loved ones. Death can come knocking at any time, in any place. At 56, my brother-in-law had no idea he was dying a week before he left. But he did. And he left a mess, as there was not a smidge of planning done. No money, no plan, nothing.

My dad would always tell me, besides the cost of living, you also need to be concerned about the high cost of dying. He was right. But proper planning can cut that cost down to size.