Many of the readers of this blog will not be in the springtime of their lives. They therefore might be susceptible to the coronavirus. I thought it was worthwhile therefore to cover how you can prepare for that eventuality. This is not a “bucket list” of things to do before you die but how to ensure your family and executors are prepared for the eventuality. As someone who has had a serious medical condition for many years, this is a subject I have spent some time on so probably have some expertise in the matter.
First make sure you have drawn up a will, and that it has been updated since there have been any changes in your life – for example new partners or offspring. Also check the appointed executors are still able and willing to act. It’s very worthwhile using a solicitor to help you draw up a will or revise one rather than trying to do it yourself. It’s one of the few bits of legal work that are usually low cost.
But there are several other additional documents you need to prepare. A “Letter of Wishes” for how you wish your personal chattels to be disposed of will be helpful to your executors. This can help to ensure that items of particular interest to your partner or children go to the right home. It can also be useful to cover what happens to cash in joint bank or deposit accounts to avoid any doubt.
One problem that is relatively new is what happens to “digital assets” such as internet accounts and associated log-ins. So it’s also helpful to provide a “Letter of Wishes – Digital Assets” that says something like this: “I hereby grant my executors under my will the right to access such digital asset accounts by using the log-ins and passwords mentioned and assigning the rights to use those assets to any person they see fit, or in the case where the accounts contain assets of value they are to be bequeathed under the terms of my will”. Obviously you also need to tell your executors where they can find all the account details and passwords.
A common problem for executors is actually locating all the assets of a deceased. You should therefore also provide a document that covers “What to do when I die” that spells out where they are. For example which brokers/platforms or banks hold the shares and cash or where the share certificates are held. This should also indicate what immediate cash can be accessed if your partner will need that in the short term, and perhaps what should be done with any share holdings, i.e. whether they should be liquidated or who will manage them going forward. In addition it should tell your executors where your will can be found.
The above covers the really bad news, but there are other things you should consider putting in place in case you don’t actually die but are incapacitated for some period of time. A “Lasting Power of Attorney for “Property and Financial Affairs” and for “Health and Welfare” are worth putting in place. These enable a partner or anyone else you appoint to financially administer your affairs and make decisions about personal care if you are unable to do so.
It is also worthwhile putting in place an Advance Medical Directive (Living Will) covering medical treatment. For example it can ensure that where there is little chance of survival or you may end up mentally incapacitated that medical treatment is halted rather than pursued. Tell your partner or offspring where the aforementioned documents can be found. In reality the chance of a Living Will being needed to be considered is relatively low and with the current state of the NHS they may not want to spend a lot of effort on keeping you alive, but you never know. There are template Advance Medical Directives available on the internet.
Of course, one essential thing to do is to avoid catching coronavirus if you possibly can by self-isolating and avoiding contact with any other humans. One way to avoid meetings is to use conference calling facilities. I attended a discussion group meeting of investors last night using Zoom and it worked quite well. The group were generally rather pessimistic for the economy but they are often are. They had few new investment ideas with a number moving into cash. The difficulty is that it is not at all clear how long the epidemic will last and many businesses have closed down for the duration. The economic impact could be enormous and Government money creation and debt raising is of major concern. It could take some years for the economy to recover, with possibly higher taxes required.
US listed Zoom is just one of many video or telephone conference services, but according to one tweet I saw this morning, its stock market valuation is now 50% more than all listed US airlines! With EasyJet (EZJ) grounding its entire aircraft fleet today, you could probably include UK airlines in that calculation also. A UK competitor for Zoom is LoopUp (LOOP) in which I hold a very few shares. I have not done a detailed technical comparison of the respective products. Zoom certainly seems to be popular and has been growing rapidly as businesses move to video conferencing from telephone conference calls. These are relatively low-cost products but there is also Skype which is free. That works relatively well for one-to-one or small groups but I often find it not easy to use. It has a confusing user interface and is technically unreliable.
In summary, try to stay alive!
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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