An astute reader may have noticed my post a few weeks ago, mentioning the 4-parent problem. Unfortunately, the PiN household now tops out at a 3-parent problem. The family situation being what it is, we had to help plan a funeral.
This got me started thinking: I talk all the time at work about advanced planning–for medical decisions, that is. CPR or no CPR. Keep going back to the hospital or stay more comfortably at home.
Personal finance writers discuss money management for a surviving spouse periodically, usually talking about lists of accounts, passwords, and directions on what to do once they are gone (see: here and here).
I see fewer discussions about the difficult middle: what to do once your loved one is gone, but before everything has been settled.
As we (me, Mr. PiN and his family) dealt with planning questions, I thought it might be useful to go through some of the issues we struggled with. It may not help the families of those who refuse to contemplate their mortality at all; but for people willing to plan, these are the things we wish had been thought about earlier.
Continue reading “Planning For Funerals”