My girlfriend’s mother just passed unexpectedly this week. She hasn’t updated her will since the mid 80s, she had no medical directive, and seemingly did not have her life insurance long enough that they would cover anything, they are just refunding what she has paid to the present.
This has us both thinking about getting ourselves set up properly just in case. We haven’t paid it much mind until now as we don’t have all that much, and no kids, but now that we are seeing the difficulty not having those things brings when people least need added stress, we want to start pursuing it.
What have you done to prepare your family for these types of events and how did you determine what sort of insurance and plans you needed for your situation. Also have you ever either had to deal with a relative leaving no plans behind, or did someone do something that made the situation much easier?
Mostly making sure I updated my beneficiaries everywhere, now that I’m divorced and my kids are legally adults. Insurance, retirement, investments, should just be allocated immediately with no probate and my kids will be covered.
My life insurance is through my employer but I guess it’s no longer necessary as soon as they get through college. When they were little, I supplemented with term life, but they’ll soon not be financially dependent on me anymore
However I haven’t been diligent with medical directives or my will.
I’d like to at least make sure the house is paid off so she doesn’t need to worry about losing her home. I have my home’s full value in retirement savings now, and the actual house is half paid off, so I don’t think I need a huge supplement. She has a good job now as well with a pretty guaranteed future (medical field). Maybe a term policy to cover us until the house pay off date would be a good place to start looking.