Why Get Your Estate in Order
There are a lot of reasons why people delay getting their estate in order. You may think that you don't have enough in the way of assets to "bother" with this type of thing. Or you might struggle with organization. Perhaps you figure that your survivors can "just handle it." Or maybe you just don't like thinking about death.
Regardless of what's holding you back, the fact is that you are the one who is best positioned to know your situation, and planning ahead can save your heirs time and money.
You don't have to tackle the entire project at once. With the help of printable forms like those at this site, you can gather information about your assets and other details a little at a time. The other aspect of preparing for death can of course be emotionally draining. But once you sit down and think through how you would like to experience the dying process, to the degree that you have choices, as well as what you would like done with your body afterward, you might even find that making decisions and getting it all down on paper clears your mind so you can focus on living.
If you don't want to get your estate in order for yourself, do it for your heirs. Your loved ones will be grieving and not in the best frame of mind to go hunting around for needed documents such as titles, stock certificates, bank records, passwords, and so on. Dealing with the emotions of loss is hard enough without adding avoidable logistics issues to the mix.
