Tidying Up -- Subtle Tips for Improving Your Estate Plan
By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi
January 17, 2023
Mid-January in my home means it is time to take the Christmas tree down (we use an artificial tree because I am severely allergic to real Christmas trees). As the twinkle lights come down and the furniture is restored back to its normal position in the living room, I use this time to tend to my estate plan in three subtle ways:
- I print out a hard copy of my holiday card mailing list with the thinking that "if I care enough about this person to mail a holiday card, I want the address easily accessible should the person need to learn of my illness or passing". The print out is kept with my estate planning binder. It's never more than a year out of date;
- I purge holiday décor that is broken, went unused, or no longer brings us joy. My 17 years as an estate planning and probate attorney make me aware that one day I will either move or die. One way or another the closet that holds all of our holiday decorations will need to be packed up. This motivates me to keep what we treasure, and the rest can be donated, gifted, or recycled. Doing this annually is a gift to my future self, and one day my loved ones; and
- I organize my recipes. The holiday dinner table is a wonderful way to honor and recognize your late loved ones by serving a favorite dish. Sadly, those foods may not be easy to replicate if the recipes were never written down, were tossed when the kitchen contents were quickly purged following an untimely death, or the ink on the recipe card is faded beyond recognition. Sadly a Swedish cookie recipe of my mother's has faded beyond comprehension and the Sicilian rice ball recipe of my husband's late aunt died with her as it was never written down.
An estate plan is much more than a will and powers of attorney. It is the practice of tidying up your life so that those precious and dear mementos or practices can easily be shared with the loved ones who carry on after you are gone.
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