omg..can I tell you to close credit card accts, to whatever is necessary only? even with poa dh is bombarded daily with "junk mail", which NOW is coming in our name as well! if you have any assets, consolidate them. consider a nursing home ins policy. we're now in the process of putting fil on Medicaid. he's been assigned, but unkown in the first search of papers, was a cd for $40,000, that his second dw had opened in case he needed funding for taxes, ect, for HER home. (and owned by the dds) the feds seized it from the step=dd's, and have insisted we spend it down, despite the wording. not hard as often we have written bills for care center over $7000. make sure your poa knows and have PRE-paid funeral arrangements (the first thing on feds Medicaid list) fil's simple funeral is nearly $9000! (why dh and i have chosen none, and cremation...even then mothers was well over $3000...back in 2005)

be sure all income tax items are in one place. just because you pass, you still have to pay taxes....

My father died in 2008. Two trusts were supposed to keep things organized. He used an attorney in Phoenix, where he lived; whereas I am in east central Illinois.
He died in the middle of the night in his apartment, so there was not much pre-planning on our part in the final days, as happened with my mother.
I tried to not work on 'things' for more than two hours a day. It took many phone calls to finalize the closing of his 12 (mostly inactive) credit cards and life insurance. He also had money in 4 banks, some were more cooperative than others. Some things were easy to handle, the closing out of his apartment; while others were horrible, like the canceling of his home medical alert system.
His will indicated that all should be completed within 15 months of his death. My accountant wondered how that would happen. I plugged along and made it within the 15 months. I still have to wait two more years before I can toss everything because we had to final the last tax return in 2009.
He thought that he had everything set up. Nope! Some of the funeral related things I had to start from scratch.
When we had it all done, I asked my attorney whether I should set up a trust similar to what my father and mother had. His response was something along the line of "are you nuts?"
My older sister and younger brother both pre-deceased my father. I ended up with boxes and boxes of photo, report cards, miscellaneous paper things and what my father and mother had compiled on their family trees. Much got tossed as it was; a lot got shredded.

I have everything typed and put in safe-keeping. He knows where it can be found. We wish we had someone trustworthy enough to give a copy to as well, but, we don't, not even family. I find it really difficult to trust anyone with our savings account number and other assets info.

Since I take care of all important documents including bills and many are paid auto online, I listed all their names and account number, etc for my DH should I precede him. I go over it annually and update if necessary. He would otherwise have no idea where things are and how I pay anything. I included everything I could think of including important passwords (Paypal and such) and even some non-important (like Facebook) just so he can deactivate it. I hope I left no stone unturned.

This is a really important step for everyone to take. I made sure my 79 YO mom has everything in order. Luckily, she's good about stuff like that. She even has her burial paid in full so I (I'm her Executor and POA) don't have to worry about anything - hopefully.

Acting as an estate's executor/trustee shouldn't be a task comparable to mucking out a horse stable. (Sorry, that's on my mind from another topic I just posted in). Lifelong hoarders shouldn't leave their messes to those who remain.

My experience is that people with more extensive assets and complicated financial pictures tend to be better organized, not just for death, but along the way. Because they had to be. On the other hand, stories from friends and family members from decedents with very limited or modest assets have described hiring dumpsters or clean up crews to simply haul away stuff and dispose of it. There's an older person of limited means in my family who refuses to declutter during their remaining lifetime. I've already expressed my availability to help now but unwillingness to handle it later.

That may be true, Snidely, but my friends' parents squirreled away assets, not stuff, and finding them all and dealing with them turned into a full time job for her. Turns out they were very well off.

Are you suggesting that's different? I think it's the same. Sorry, my comment was written hastily and isn't clear.

People who squirrel away assets of value and don't adequately document them so that they can be handled with ease as with everything else were some or all of the following: Ill-advised, financially naive and perhaps idiosyncratic, un-advised, stupid, misinformed, stupid and stupid.

I know, it doesn't help, but just knowing that they're selfishly leaving behind a fecal matter bomb that will blow up on their heirs or family members ought to motivate people to suck it up and do what's right. But I know, it often doesn't.

Yes, that's what her parents were doing. Squirrelling away assest without documents. Quite a bit. Not organized at all.

For those who don't have a trusted relative or friend to give the lists to, you can put them on file at your lawyer's office, and give the lawyer's card to your heir, or put them in your desk or wherever you keep your bills and papers.

I've experienced it both ways -organized and tidy trusts as well as disorganized treasure hunts. It's a learning experience and provides good object lessons on how to handle your own personal affairs for your own peace of mind and the ease of that person you entrust to discharge your estate - be it big or small.

The trusts were easy to discharge from the start through the distribution of assets to the final tax returns, etc.

For the ones who leave messes, fortunately I had a broad powered financial POA - and the loved one, being in long term care, I had access to her apartment and could sift through years of outdated and accumulated papers to separate wheat from chaff. By mere luck I stumbled on the hidden SD box keys and an old rental agreement for it cluing me in to where the box was. It took me a year before her death to find and consolidate all the banks holding CDs, money markets, savings accounts scattered in two states... luckily a short hop across the bridge.

The will itself was simple, no special bequests, no directives as to dispersal of personal possessions. Surviving nieces, nephews, siblings each took a memento or whatever they could use and the rest was bought outright by estate appraisers and got carted away for their auction. No fuss no muss and I found it fair.

The bottom line is - don't leave anything to chance, no guesswork. List everything no matter how seemingly insignificant. Your executor will thank you.

Maybe we here now have a better understanding of doing the needful than the last now quickly disappearing generation did. In a lot of cases there was a resistance to Living Wills, DNRs, POAs because everybody will "do the right thing" idea. Preparing for our eventual demise is just a part of life - or at least it should be.

Lifelong hoarders shouldn't leave their messes
to those who remain.

This has to be one of the more ridiculous statements ever written.

but some hoarding doesn't mean like the shows, either...I have bookcases filled with paperbacks. not on the floor don't have to be walked over...and snidely? I am emptying out at least 2 for purple heart...