Let's create a death deck for spooky season
Did I save this topic for October? Obviously, I do like a theme.
As with a lot of my topics, this started with a walk with a friend. We were catching up as we hadn’t seen each other for a while due to both of us being out of town for the summer.
As we are of a certain age, we have parents of a certain age and have also lost family, friends, acquaintances and coworkers. It’s not easy when confronted with other people’s mortality as it forces you to confront your own. Memento mori and all that. Cue the jet and hair jewellery.
What do you do when you’re single? A will, yes, and estate planning but what about the nitty gritty things like your social media, your accounts and hell, the announcement of your death so your friends, colleagues and extended family know as soon as possible, not months later? People want to be known before and after death. Being single means we have to do a little more managing of our post-life selves.
My friend has an answer and it’s the Posthumous and/or Incapacitation Info/Checklist. Your pre- and post-death deck where you list out exactly what you want.
My friend very kindly sent me her deck and there are 10 things to add when creating our own decks.
All the passwords: for social media, bank accounts, laptop, phone, internet, insurance policies and investments.
All the contacts: family, your boss/manager, investment advisor, superintendent and property manager for your building, the executor, power of attorney holder(s) for property and health, mortgage broker, insurance broker, lawyers, trusted third party, guardians for children and/or pets, closest friends and religious leader if you go to a religious institution. Include phone numbers and email addresses.
Financial information: banking, investments, life, home, disability, critical illness and business insurance, and mortgage documents and where to find them. Include addresses and websites and how much should be in those accounts. Attach the names of anyone who manages them.
All your social media accounts. You have friends online who would like to know.
Residential information. Include your full address, the locations and numbers of your parking spot, locker and mailbox if you live in a condo. This is where you include the name and contact info of the person who has a key to your home, mailbox and locker if you’ve them keys.
Subscriptions and prescriptions such as: Condo maintenance fees, Hydro or electrical costs, internet and phone, city and/or property taxes, home and business insurance (see above), LinkedIn premium, YouTube, Netflix, Disney, Apple TV, Prime, Discord, meal subscriptions, newspapers, magazine and Substack subscriptions, you get the picture. Include your medical prescriptions as well. Remember to add the emails attached to these.
Where you want to be buried. I’m going for cremation and know where I want my ashes buried.
Your wishes in regards to what happens after death. Do you want to be revived if incapacitated? Donate organs? Be cremated or turned into a diamond? This is where you put where you want your funeral and celebration of life to take place. Do you want a eulogy and a funeral? A nine night?
Your list of donations to charities you care about and the monetary amount.
The list of people to contact about your death. I really like this because I’ve found out about friends’ deaths well after the fact. Obviously it’s not about me but it feels odd to find out a friend died weeks or months after. You grieve but it feels a bit isolating as others went through the immediate grieving process earlier.
The way I see it, creating your death deck can be done in two ways: all at once, just power through it or set aside some time per month to finish it. Do you have to make it fancy? Go with sparkles or deep Victorian mourning. Have fun with it.
Then it’s about updating it as things change. Set some time once a year as property managers change, policies get updated or cancelled, and if your annual fight with your telco results in changes.
Whew, it’s quite a list and looking at it, I only have about 40 per cent of it done. Guess I have some work to do. See you in November!
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This week’s readings:
I did a quick TikTok for MooseMoney about the classic Personal Finance for Dummies for Canadians. (MooseMoney)
Wrote a piece on how meal subscription companies and small groceries were in better shape to adapt to the Buy Canadian movement. Canadian companies serve growing appetites for eating local (Globe and Mail)
Wrote a piece on how sneaky secrets can ruin families for Canadian Family Offices. ‘No clue this was going to happen’: Family secrets can cause lasting damage (Canadian Family Offices)
Wrote this piece for Sharp: How to make your money work for you (Sharp)
Helping your kids financially: 5 smart ways that won’t derail your retirement (CTV)
Ooh, this is so good. 3 signs you need to take control of your parents’ finances (MoneySense)
I am constantly bombarded by these ads and I hate them so much. The rapid rise of sports gambling is dangerous to our financial well-being and our societal health (Globe and Mail, paywalled)