Appendix A. Appendix
In my research for this report, I inevitably came across a lot of good advice for dealing with a sudden death, but that was beyond the scope of this report. I don’t intend for this to be an exhaustive list of items to work on, but I did want to include this data because it might be helpful to some in a difficult time.
Section 1: Preparation Items Beyond the Scope of Managing a Digital Legacy
Ensure that multiple family members understand/have completed the following:
Add both spouses to all financial accounts as authorized users
Confirm that both spouses understand all sources of income
Ensure that both spouses understand all regular expenses
Make sure both spouses are aware of all financial accounts
Switch bill/financial management roles once per year
Review and purchase appropriate life insurance
Ensure major reward-point account information is shared between spouses
Verify that proper beneficiaries are set up for financial accounts
Both spouses create a will or estate plan
Both spouses create a living will
Ensure that multiple family members are trained on operation of the following:
Operating the home’s main electrical distribution panel (ideally with circuits labeled, including the main breaker)
Main interior or exterior water shutoff valve
Natural gas meter and shut off valve
Sewer clean out access
Hot water tank temp gauge, controls and pilot light (especially how to relight the pilot)
Attic and crawl space access
Sprinkler system controls
Plotted property line
HVAC systems and controls
Pool or spa
Section 2: Basic Household Responsibilities
One of the cruel realities of life is that it doesn’t care what grief, trauma, or terrible thing you are going through, it continues on relentlessly. Bills still need to be paid, jobs need to be worked, houses need to be maintained, kids raised, and dogs need to be fed. In the midst of tragedy, we still need to keep going. It’s times like this when friends and family can really help lessen the load, and the more you know about the basic functions of a shared household, the better prepared you or your loved one will be to minimize the stress and difficulty of an already incredibly challenging time.
At the most basic level, the surviving spouse or loved one needs to know how to access the bank accounts and pay the bills. Often, people use automatic bill payment, direct deposit, and paperless billing. These are wonderful conveniences, but they make it a lot more difficult to know where things are for a surviving spouse who did not enable these features originally and is trying to discover all the financial obligations for the first time.
Figuring out these basic financial questions is often the first task of a surviving spouse or loved one. Hopefully, there was some upfront and continual sharing of information about these accounts. An agreed-upon storage place for these kinds of details can help tremendously here. However, if this does not exist, the surviving spouse is going to have to do some financial archaeology to discover the necessary information. It is possible both spouses were added to all the financial accounts, which can help greatly in finding and managing finances after a sudden death. This is the first thing to check for in the hunt for the financial accounts. It also helps greatly when you do find these accounts, in terms of getting access.
Some of the most boring items, such as designating a beneficiary on a life insurance or 401(k) account, or ensuring both spouses are approved contacts for a bank account, can make a huge difference in a terrible situation. However, if none of this was done ahead of time, it’s going to take a lot of extra work to secure access to these accounts.
To begin the discovery around basic household tasks, it can be very useful to have some paper copies of bills and account info to help put together the pieces of a financial life after a death. Often, a spouse who has unexpectedly passed away might have a number of services or automatic bills drawing against bank accounts or credit cards. Being able to access this information can help to unravel the tangles of how funds were being used and what services can possibly be terminated to save money. A thorough hunt through the residence for any paper copies of bills, credit card statements, or anything related to financial accounts can give you a starting point.
A surviving spouse might have only a credit card charge and a company name with which to work. Calling those companies and asking about the charges can help, but often it will take a lot of effort to convince the service provider of the situation.
Finally, being able locating key basic documentation like the house deed, car titles, mortgage details, and other similar documents is incredibly helpful in times like this.
Section 3: The Finances
If a surviving spouse was not aware of the financial situation and accounts, he will need to figure out the basics relatively quickly. Starting with the most basic accounts is a good approach. Finding and understanding the main checking account is often the first and most important key to understanding the household finances. If the surviving spouse or loved one is completely in the dark about the account, it often can be uncovered through paper records. Typically, banks will mail out at least some information on a regular basis. Another clue can be found if direct deposit is set up on the surviving spouses’ paychecks.
After the main bank is identified, it can be difficult to get access to the accounts if the surviving spouse is for some reason not listed as an authorized contact. Persistence on the part of the surviving widow or widower can certainly help get things moving. Visiting a local branch office is often more effective than calling a distant call center. Having copies of the death certificate is also helpful, but that can take time to obtain in some circumstances.
After the surviving spouse gains access to the bank account, reviewing the last few months of bills can help identify services that are paid automatically, as well as other financial obligations that might not be immediately apparent. Some of these can be immediately cancelled if cash flow is an issue.
The next step would be to identify credit card accounts. This can be a treasure trove of information around bills, services, and other financial data. If you can find a paper statement with the account number and financial institution, that’s the best place to start. If no paper statements are readily available, you will likely need to hit the phones and explain your role of surviving spouse again. It’s a difficult but effective method.
Finding all of the accounts can be tricky, but another good source of information is a credit report from the main credit bureaus, such as Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Pulling a copy of the deceased spouse’s credit report can often uncover most credit card accounts, mortgages, or other loans that might have been taken out by the deceased spouse.
Another great source of information in the financial investigation is the deceased person’s main email account. Often, bills and monthly account summary information is sent to these accounts. Getting access to these email accounts can range from trivial to incredibly complex, depending on the level of security set up by the deceased and the organization hosting the email.
After the surviving spouse accesses these basic financial accounts, it usually allows her to at least keep the lights on and pay the bills while becoming more adept at financial discovery.
What can be very helpful is to have a trusted third party involved to give advice and support. This can be a family friend who is highly knowledgeable about financial products and services, or a preexisting relationship with a trusted certified financial planner, accountant, lawyer, or someone who is looking out for the best interests of the surviving spouse (who is not motivated by profit or commissions paid on any financial moves made by the surviving family member).
Advanced Financial Account Discovery
When the basics of the finances are mostly stable, it’s time to begin looking into more complex accounts, such as investment funds, 401(k) accounts, IRA accounts, life insurance, and similar items.
These days, many people switch jobs pretty often throughout their career, as well as working side jobs and other projects. This often results in a fairly complex and spread out financial world. Between 401(k) accounts from previous employment, IRA accounts, savings accounts, nonretirement investment accounts, real estate, possibly multiple life insurance plans, and various other items, it can sometimes take years to find and unravel all of the various financial items of a deceased spouse.
Certainly, keeping all of these accounts in order, well-documented, and shared with both spouses can make this part of the process much easier. As has been repeated many times in this report, sharing and documenting this financial information early and often with both spouses makes an incredibly difficult time that much easier. Additionally, having designated beneficiaries and shared account access is incredibly helpful to handling these accounts after a sudden death. However, assuming that this information is not readily available, it will need to be hunted down.
Finding these accounts can be nontrivial. Often, a clue to the existence of these types of accounts can come about due to some bit of paperwork a surviving spouse might come across, or random piece of mail that comes to the house. This usually leads to a number of phone calls and emails to the various financial companies as a surviving spouse needs to prove the deceased is actually dead, that the surviving spouse is indeed the next-of-kin, and that the account should be transferred to the surviving spouse’s control.
One thing that can make this process a bit easier (after the accounts are located, and assuming the surviving spouse is not already a designated account contact) is if the surviving spouse has the same last name as the deceased. Many people choose not to change their name when they get married, but in this one pocket case, that seems to cause a bit of pain. Additionally, having many copies of the death certificate to send to the various financial institutions is vital.
Recommendations/Lessons Learned:
As ghoulish as it might sound, it is highly useful to have many copies of the death certificate: at least 20 to 30 copies. Many people and organizations demand to see a copy of the death certificate to transfer ownership to next-of-kin. It’s better to have far too many copies and not need them, than to need them and have to wait for the gears of bureaucracy to turn and issue more copies.
Shutting Down Accounts
After you have found financial accounts and taken appropriate action, you may want to close some of the accounts that you no longer need. Being a coaccount holder is helpful for this situation on most types of accounts.
For most types of financial accounts, a stated beneficiary will have the ability to continue to use the account, transfer funds out of it, or close it down. Without a stated beneficiary, a death certificate and possibly a probate court might be necessary to fully transfer the account.
Some types of accounts, such as credit cards or loans, can be a source of fraud and theft if left open too long. It’s certainly not the most important item to take care of after a death, but it shouldn’t linger too long, either.
Accounts are often transferred to the deceased person’s estate and handled as part of a normal probate court process following the wishes of the will. While this is in process, it is often helpful to notify various financial agencies of the situation and put a hold or freeze on the account (if activity is not necessary) until the will and estate is settled.
Section 4: Working with Companies
Many companies do not yet have any policy or plan for working with next-of-kin after an unexpected death of a customer. For instance, something as simple as picking up a car from an airport parking lot, when the customer who parked it has died, can be a maddening game of hot potato with the various customer service reps. Some of the larger companies and organizations do have policies, but it is surprising how few actually have a plan to deal with a sudden death.
To begin, it’s often useful to look up the company in question in your preferred search engine. This will often yield contact information for the local office, corporate offices, and other similar contact information. If possible, begin with the local office and work your way up the corporate food chain as needed.
When working with organizations that are somehow involved in a business arrangement with the deceased, you should be polite, but persistent. Often the front-line folks you contact will have no idea what to do, and will redirect you to a different office or perhaps the main customer service number. Document all of your contacts, and keep at it.
Continue to contact them in as many ways as they recommend, but when all else fails, turn to the power of social media to prompt movement. For instance, reaching out with a public tweet to their main Twitter account will often shake loose some movement.
Often, most large companies will have an executive PR team monitoring social media platforms like Twitter for customer issues. This can be a shortcut to executive involvement in the issue. Be polite but firm in your social media engagement; this can often yield positive results when all else fails.
For those companies without a plan to deal with the death of a customer, it is highly useful to come up with a plan and train customer service folks on how to invoke it.
Recommendations/Lessons Learned:
When all else fails, turn to social media and publicly reach out to the company. PR teams often monitor social media and have better abilities to escalate to senior leadership in order to resolve issues.
Companies that serve the public should plan ahead and come up with a corporate policy and methodology for dealing with the death of a customer. The easier they can make it for a grieving family, the better off for everyone involved. It might be rare, but it does happen.