Doing the right thing. Before the inevitable end of your life.

I recently lost my father.

After a long illness, after a bad deterioration period of time, he passed away in a hospital bed in his sleep. Painlessly, in complete peace. And we were with him.

When a father dies in a family it is always a tragedy since generally the male figure is the one who guides the choices and direction of any economic nature and brings home the largest share of the family income.

After coming to terms with the pain of loss and dealing with everything that comes after a bereavement, I stopped one evening to think about my situation at the time.

My father’s long illness, had allowed my mother and me to handle family matters as best we could. We had had plenty of time to do things right, but more importantly, to have an overview of our situation.  That overview that is sometimes lacking in a family.

And I stopped to think about those families who go through bereavement and have not been as fortunate as I have been. How to do that in this case?

You who are reading, I assume that you are the one in the family who takes care of the boring financial matters. I assume that you are the one who makes the decisions and has the idea of the big picture. Let’s start with what experience has taught me.

The first thing to consider is information asymmetry.

Since you are the one in the family dealing with these things, most likely your partner doesn’t know anything about it. And that is not necessarily completely wrong. We have to consider the amount of things there are to do, the different interests of the two partners, and the personal predisposition of each.

But you have to consider, though, that the moment you are gone, your wife or husband will have to take over your financial management and they will have to put the pieces together and figure out what to do and who to talk to.

If I can give you a tip, try to leave everything written and create something foolproof.

Account numbers, passwords and logins, who to contact and why, trusted people to turn to who can help those who find themselves managing this situation.

These are trivial things that we don’t think about, however. The basic principle is to handle this situation by trying to leave emotions aside and make the job easier for those who will be there after you.

Educating your wife or children about economics and investing, that is a good job to do. It will be difficult, especially if you lack motivation and desire.

Also because, let’s face it.  you are dead, you certainly can’t suggest account passwords to your wife in her sleep.