Putting our affairs in order ahead of time gives us control and brings peace of mind. Read about the five things you can do today to protect your loved ones after your death. In this blog post, we cover will writing, funeral planning, the most efficient way to protect your assets and more.

1.   Talk About Death

Being alive means that we will die one day. None of us can escape death. And there is immense beauty and grace in that fact, that fate that we all share. It’s what makes life so very precious, so worth living to the fullest. We don’t have a choice about having to die but we do get to choose how we want to meet death and how well we prepare our loved ones for the transition into a life without us.

We plan ahead for every other major life event like graduation, buying our first home, the birth of a child or grandchild, marriage, even losing our jobs or suffering from an injury or illness. So, let’s make end of life, part of life and normalise talking about death with our family. It gives us and them the opportunity to explore how we feel about different options about how we want to live our final years and days, end-of-life care (if we need it), dying and how we want to be celebrated and remembered after death. It takes away fear and uncertainty of what our loved one would’ve wished for or wanted which can be a huge burden and source of stress. Talking about death also allows us to get to know one another on a deeper level.

Death is not only a topic for grown-ups. Children are naturally curious and will start asking questions when they encounter dead plants and bugs, face the death of a beloved pet or, eventually, a grandparent or other relative. If you would like to learn more about how to best approach the topic with your child(ren) and how to meet them where they’re at in their developmental stage, we recommend our news post “Explaining death to children.”

2.   Write a Will

The only way to ensure that your wishes regarding your estate and what happens with it after your death will be followed is by writing a will. If you die without leaving a will, a court will decide what happens to your assets based on the law of intestacy, a set of rules from 1925. Your estate might end up getting distributed among former spouses and estranged family members or fall to the government.

Writing a will brings you the peace of mind that you did what you could to protect your family from falling out over trivial things that might have huge emotional value. It will also save your loved one’s stress, hassle, time, and money. Most people have a straightforward estate and would be surprised how simple it is to write a legal, valid will that holds up in court. To learn more about why writing a will is important and what you need to know before you start, we recommend this news post.

Once you have written your will, it is important to communicate to your family that it exists and explain your decisions to them to prevent potential disputes after your death. To help with this, you can lay out your intentions, what you want your money and other assets to achieve for those you leave behind.

One way of sharing your important documents with your family or the person who you appointed as executor of your will is by storing them in an online vault like the one provided by MyDigiSafe. It allows you to encrypt all the documents related to your assets, including passwords, and securely store them in one place that can only be accessed by yourself or upon your death by those you trust and approved.

3.   Prepaid Funeral Plans

Funeral costs have risen 130% since 2004. The price for even a basic funeral is the highest it’s ever been in the UK. It costs an average of £4,184. A prepaid funeral plan freezes the costs of the funeral you want for yourself at today’s prices and value.

Not only is it one of the most thoughtful gifts you can give your loved ones on a financial level, but also on a personal level. It will protect your family from the biggest expenses – the funeral director and burial or cremation fees – as they will have already been paid for.

Furthermore, you also preplan the most important arrangements like burial or cremation, what type of coffin, if you want to have a procession with a hearse and pallbearers and any other wishes you might have (even though they might not all be included) when you choose the prepaid funeral plan that is right for you. This means that your loved ones aren’t left wondering what send-off you would have wanted and won’t need to make a myriad of choices about your funeral during an emotionally challenging time. All they have to do is make one phone call when the time comes.

4.   Set up a Trust

If you want to protect your family financially for years to come after your death, one of the best ways to do it is by setting up a trust.

The main three benefits of a trust are:

• You can potentially avoid inheritance tax. Anything that is put into a trust is no longer considered part of your estate. By putting assets into a trust, you can keep your estate below the inheritance tax threshold of £325.000. If you put most of your assets into one or several trusts you might even be able to stay under the probate threshold which varies between £5000 – £50.000.
• You can protect your loved ones by providing financial stability to particularly vulnerable family members (e.g., people with learning difficulties, a disability, or other financial problems they don’t have control over).
• By setting up a trust you can protect your assets from being used to pay for care

home fees for example and ensure that most of your money, stocks, etc. get passed on to those you leave behind in the most efficient way.

There are several types of trusts, and it pays off to get the help of a professional when setting one up.

5.   Appoint a Power of Attorney

Setting up a Power of Attorney protects yourself and your loved ones should you ever lose the mental capacity – through injury or illness – to make decisions about your finances, medical treatments, or any other personal affairs.

By choosing someone you trust implicitly to be your attorney if you should ever need it, you

• save your family from having to apply for a deputyship order at the Court of Protection which can be a long and painful process. It is also costly, as they charge £365 for the application alone and there are other fees to be paid on top of that.
• make sure a trusted loved one has access to your funds when they need it to pay for bills and keep up with payments. This especially applies if you are the main breadwinner, and your family depends on your money.
• should be able to ensure that your attorney (the person you appoint) will make the decisions that you’d have made yourself if you still had the mental capacity to do so and that are in your best interest. Have someone at your side who protects you from potential fraud when you are at your most vulnerable.
• have the peace of mind that you don’t end up having someone appointed to make the most important decisions for you and handle your affairs that you wouldn’t have picked yourself and maybe don’t trust as much.