PLANNING AHEAD BY JENNIFER BOICE
I
t’s never easy losing a loved one. The period after the loss of a close family member feels like a dream or an alternate state of reality. Numb with the recent loss, we hurry around making funeral arrangements, procuring legal documents, and greeting family and friends with a smile, wishing we were seeing them under different circumstances. It isn’t until this flurry of events is over that we can properly grieve. It’s exhausting. And we need time to process the loss of a life that was so dear to us. But there may be one more thing holding us back from getting to that state of grief. If our loved one was the lone survivor of their estate, the burden of
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dividing their assets, sorting through financial information, and tending to the remainder of their estate falls to us. Within the past few years, I’ve witnessed my own family go through the task of sorting out the estate of passed loved
ones. Before my grandmother passed, she had everything arranged, her burial account ready, her documents organized, her will signed, and her wishes clearly stated. She had talked with her children
INSIGHTFUL, MOTIVATIONAL & INSPIRATIONAL
