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Article IndexBY WARREN BOROSON
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
BOROSON ON MONEY
A woman I know was expecting a second child, by her second husband. So she decided to fish out her old will and see what needed updating. Her old will, she was shocked to discover, named her FIRST husband, now ex-husband, as the chief beneficiary.
Today there’s a neat new way to make things easier for yourself and for your survivors when you buy the farm. An online platform, AfterSteps, will help your survivors cope by giving them the information they should have. As it is, one survey found that 25 percent of beneficiaries didn’t even know that they were the beneficiaries of a life insurance policy.
The information you’re asked for includes names, phone numbers, email addresses (of lawyers, accountants, etc.), where your will is, who is your executor, what you want in the way of funeral arrangements, whether you want to be cremated or, at the other end, have an “ornate metal” coffin, where your dough is stashed, what you want your obituary to say, last messages to friends and loved ones, and so on and so forth.
It’s also informative, explaining, for example, what an “advance directive” is and whether you might benefit by setting up a trust. In fact, AfterSteps will even find you an estate lawyer, an insurance agent, a funeral director, whatever.
No, there’s no referral fee (kickback), I was happy to hear.
What AfterSteps does, among other good things, is notify certain people you’re gone — “verifiers,” they’re called. Spouse, children, lawyer, CPA, lover.
It has you update your information regularly. That’s why the service is continuing. Has the executor moved away? Do you have a new child, or a new husband? Have you moved out of state? A few times a year, AfterSteps messages you to check what needs updating.
I like the idea. I keep writing “final statements,” then forgetting where I put them and forgetting to update them. I think I’m no longer speaking to my executor, and I fired my CPA long ago.
Some of the information AfterSteps provides is fun. In which state do the most people, percentagewise, have themselves cremated? Nevada, 73.46 percent. Where do the fewest have themselves cremated? Mississippi, 13.84 percent. Damned if I know why. Jews don’t permit cremation, so I guess Mississippi is heavily populated with Jews. (Joke.)
