The last few weeks have been difficult for Joel Johnson and the family after the loss of his father. The grieving process is never easy and dealing with the estate after only makes things more complicated.

We’ve seen that first-hand and it serves as a great reminder to make sure the estate plan gets plenty of attention during the planning process. Since this experience has hit so close to home, we wanted to share a few of the things Joel has dealt with and use this difficult time to help others put their family in a good position in case they have a similar experience.

You’ll hear throughout the conversation that the common theme to this is simplification. We all know that death is hard enough to handle so anything you can do to make life easier for your spouse and family will go a long way. Even for Joel, whose father stayed on top of his finances, there’s still a list of items that need to be sorted through and his mother is having difficulty doing that.

The first thing that everyone can do is get all of the accounts organized and kept in one place. Make sure your spouse can access everything and knows where to find it. Joel’s father, for example, set up the automatic bill pay for their monthly expenses and it’s saved so much worry. Take advantage of this option if you can because it’s such a huge burden lifted when you’re not stressing out over whether the bills are getting paid.

If you’re someone who has always handled the finances on your own, it’s still in your best interest to have at least a meeting with a financial planner. If nothing else for people, use that time to prepare for after you’re gone and you can’t manage the family money any longer. Make sure you get a second look at everything to ensure your assets are being passed along the way you expect.

We will always make this a part of the Money Map process for everyone that takes advantage of it. Let us help you simplify your finances and keep things from being more complicated than they already are.

0:33 – The loss of Joel’s father

2:18 – Financial steps after someone passes

4:26 – Importance of simplifying things

5:54 – What would you have done differently with their finances?

7:22 – Taking care of the widow

10:05 – How the Money Map simplifies planning