EOL Measures

I have recently been converted to LastPass and have found it very useful. A whole load of my ( and the wife’s ) commonly used UserName and PassWords are on here, and the master password to this and a lot of lesser used logins are in an A5 book that is an old telephone index book with alphabetized tabs.

Should I pop my clogs unexpectedly, SWMBO knows where it is, but I suspect our son could extract the information without the help of it, if needed.

If no work has started, unless there are a very simple set of assets, getting the probate application in before 1st May will be a real challenge. The costs of professional support can be eye-watering, never trust a bank! If property is involved things can get costly, though if most of the estate is ‘jointly owned’ (especially the house), then it can make a huge difference to costs and complexity for any widow inheriting.  I was able to file for probate within a month of one passing but the other was more complex, (thank you some lesser banks and building societies) and took just over 4 months to be ready to file. There is an issue if you take more than six months as cost then escalate.

Warning, the executor(s) is (are) responsible for any errors and will need to gather papers for any professional. A bit like the usual consultant, ‘borrow your watch to tell you the time and then keep the watch!’

Ed I am in a similar but slightly different position, having two biological children somewhere in Germany with dual nationality and two stepchildren here. Coincidentally, the ‘natural’ children’s birthdays are just a couple of months apart in each case, from the stepchildrens’, and the firstborn was a boy in both cases too.

I tried for years to regain contact, but my German kids informed me several times, eventually forcefully, that we were done. As I had brought up my stepkids from young with their mum, they have called me dad since the first year we became a family. When SWMBO and I made a will each, I had the solicitor ensure that the only children to receive any inheritance from myself, are my named stepchildren. I also ensured that, should I predecease my wife, she is the sole beneficiary. The existence of stepchildren and natural children can make for an awkward situation, but I wanted to ensure that the kids I have loved and raised as my own, should benefit, as opposed to those who rejected me. I also wish that the 4 children of my stepkids, eventually benefit. I have been present at all 4 births and they have all called me granddad since they began to talk. In the case of my son’s kids, I am the only granddad they have ever known. This does not mean that I will ever forget my natural children, they never leave my mind for long, but I long ago gave up beating myself up over them. When I left, I discovered back in the UK that my ex had opened my case, removed all the photos of my kids, and burned them, putting the ashes in a small jar and leaving a note to tell me what she had done. In German, with several adjectives and adverbs that I would not repeat here, even in another language.

In today’s world of broken relationships, there must be thousands of similar situations.

Thanks for the tip Richard, but I had already deposited a ‘final’ letter from each of my German children, with my solicitor, appended to the Will with my instructions and his legal comments regarding my position. They were both well over 21 at the time, the solicitor actually conducted a Search for them via a German lawyer friend of his and discovered what he needed to know. He was astonished at the tone and the language in the letters.

The female party had a Gasthaus, where I lived illegally when I should have been in barracks. I had a very understanding C.O. who turned a blind eye, but told me that it would end if I ever let him down. I never did, but he also met the she-dog and told me this would end in tears someday. I was on my way posted back to the UK for my last few months in service, expecting to take her and the children with me, when out of the blue, she refused to go and barred from the Gasthaus and the kids. I walked down the path for the last time in 1975, with a 5 and 7 yo crying behind me. I had a house and a job all setup.

I made up my mind to forget them, although the pain has decreased with the years, I can never forget them. Meeting and marrying my lovely SWMBO saved my life, I think. Having an instant family was icing on the cake.

If you do right, no one remembers. Do wrong, no one forgets.

The Duke wrote:

Google emails me every 6 months to asked if my EOL info is up to date. If I don’t login to a my primary Google account for a certain length of time it will email, my wife in my case, an email that will give her access to my main account, and it has an attached email with all the account info she needs for stuff, and instructions on what files to keep, and what to do with work files. Well tbh it says, let your brother….. And he can sort the files out. Every time Google emails me I look over the info in the email and ammend them. When way wife got ill, her brother was pit on the EOL mailing list. Just incase. I’d recomend you all do somthing similar. There are a few companies that offer this. But I settled on Google because they are not going to fold over night, and off they decided to retire the service they will give you plenty of notice. Also if you dont want to send someone the keys to your Google account, you can tell Google to but it in hibernation for as long as you wish, then delete the it if you dont return in that time.

Have you got a link for this please Steve?

That’s brilliant, thanks 🙂