(no subject)

[the_rck]

The recent death of a friend's partner has reminded me that I want to update my will. It's nothing really urgent-- If Scott and I both die, Cordelia currently goes to Scott's sister. Now that Cordelia's older, I want to consider other options. We're not entirely sure that we like some of the dynamics in Scott's sister's family. We think the discipline there is uneven.

I may come back to Scott's sister, but I may not. My sister and Scott's brother are both good options as well, and either of them might be more like us than Scott's sister and her husband. On the other hand, Scott's sister is local, and Cordelia knows her better than she knows Scott's brother or my sister.

Also, right now, if Scott's sister can't take Cordelia, she would go to local friends who have recently adopted a baby and might not be in a position to take her. When Cordelia was born, neither my sister nor Scott's brother were in a position to take Cordelia, and these friends were. Things change.

Fortunately, because my estate is extremely simple, I can use our state's statutory will form. I just have to print it out, fill it out, and sign it in front of witnesses.

The slightly more complicated thing is what becomes of my website-- If Scott survives me, he would probably keep it up as is for as long as he could. If he doesn't or if he dies before me, my website would disappear into the ether. I have no idea how to keep it up without Scott to administer it, hardware or software. Almost all of my fics are at AO3, so I'm relatively unworried about those. My recs, on the other hand, exist nowhere else, and I'm not sure there's a good place to which I could back them up. I suppose I could try putting them on DW and/or LJ, but that would be a lot of work. I have hundreds of recommendations in dozens of fandoms.

There's also Rheotaxis-- If I die with that unfinished, I'd like someone to post the draft of the final chapter that I wrote some time back so that readers could see where I intended the story to go. I can probably ask that of Scott, but it wouldn't be a high priority for him, and he's never used AO3 (I think he'd have to be the one to update my website, so that's a different issue altogether).

Then there's all sorts of tidying up online-- I've currently got five email addresses. They'd all have to be dealt with. I'd want some sort of announcement on DW/LJ (and to put it in my profile on both sites) and something about it put in my profiles at AO3 and fanfiction.net. I don't have enough of a Tumblr presence for that to matter (I seldom visit and almost never post). The folks from metanews would need to be notified right away so that they could arrange to cover the work I usually do. I should make a list, with login information, and put it somewhere where Scott knows where it is.

I also need to get on Scott about getting some further life insurance. Right now, if he died, Cordelia and I would get enough money to get by for two years. After that, we wouldn't be able to afford our house (or living in Ann Arbor at all, most likely) or our groceries or our utilities. I don't know who in the family would be able to take us in, but somebody would have to. Every time I've brought up life insurance, Scott has assumed that I mean that I don't have enough. I probably don't, but my disability income isn't a huge part of our budget, and Cordelia is capable of doing a lot of things for herself, so Scott probably wouldn't have to hire anyone to look after her.

There's a lot to think about.

Comments

[kyrielle]

That is a lot.

One thing that doesn't help at all with the money/will part, but might help with the rest: my Dad kept a CD of "accounts and things to deal with if/when we die" - it was VERY helpful when my parents passed away and my brain was not worth a darn. He kept his physically offline, but you could also do it anything reasonably secure. Notes in a program like 1Password, an encrypted file, etc. Scott would just need the password into it.

You could potentially even include the final Rheotaxis chapter with intro, and instructions, so it would be copy/paste. But at least the various accounts.

And hopefully it will not be needed, but if it was...well, it simplifies a bit.

[the_rck]

I should put together something like that. Thanks for the suggestion!

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

You can also register your will with the state, which might make it easier to locate if anybody needs to. I'm not sure how that works, though. Definitely, it's worth establishing a place in your house, if you don't already have one, (such as a small fireproof box) where super-important documents go (wills, birth certificates, passports, social security cards, etc.), and putting your will there, so that grieving family members don't have to search for it. Life insurance has another advantage: If there is a named beneficiary, that person gets the money fairly quickly -- which they may need -- rather than having to wait for the will to go through probate, which can be a lengthy process.

[the_rck]

We've got one of those fire proof boxes down in the basement. Of course, I'm not at all sure where the key to it is. I know my birth certificate and Cordelia's are in there. I think Scott's and my wills are there. That's where we intended to put them, anyway.