[This got lost in the ether. It should originally have published 15 JAN 2024]
It’s been a week since I posted my resolution to update my estate paperwork.
So how am I doing with my resolution? This week, I have been working on my annuity. I transferred the funds to a different investment (same account, same company, different sub-account), and I printed out the hardcopy paperwork required to update my beneficiary.
I also looked at outlines for updating my will, advanced health directive, and Power of Attorney. The U.S. Air Force has online guidance that enables you to prepare in advance before meeting with an Air Force lawyer to complete this paperwork. This news article gives a good overview of the Air Force legal assistance website. And this link is where you create an account and get started. The data you input is retained for 90 days – after that, it is dumped and you would have to start over. This legal assistance is free of charge for active duty military, their eligible family members, and retirees. In some circumstances, it is also available to reservists.
This week I also did some research on my burial arrangements. Spousal Unit knows the basics: how, where. But I did a bit of deeper digging into the specifics. I do have Croak Book materials that I purchased and downloaded, but we haven’t created the binder and filled it in yet. [A Croak Book is a binder full of information about your bills, investments, funeral arrangements, etc. that you leave behind as a road map for your executor/next-of-kin.] I purchased a copy for My Boomer Parent and created a binder for them to (hopefully) fill in, to make it easier for the family when they pass, but haven’t created ours yet. The burial arrangement information would go in this binder, to make it easier for our survivors/executor.
It’s going to take a while to complete everything on my estate planning checklist, but I’ve made a start. Now I’ve just got to keep making progress.
How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions?