Listen, nobody likes to talk about what happens in the event that we are no longer around. It isn?t pleasant to think about, especially when you are trying to enjoy your life and time with friends. Succession planning and preparing for the day you leave this world is kind of a buzzkill. However, it is the one thing you cannot hide or escape from. There will be a day that you shuffle loose the mortal coil. The question is, how do you want that moment to go for your family? Not the grieving part. That is going to be a given. It?s what has to happen and the decisions that need to be made when you pass on, that are tough on a family when they are trying to grieve.
Plain and simple, you need to have a plan. Nobody knows when they will take their last breath, so don?t put an unnecessary burden on your family.
Why am I being morbid or this much of a Debby Downer this close to Christmas? It?s because the great beyond doesn?t care what day it is on the calendar. It cares not about what you have planned. Certainly, it doesn?t care whether or not you are ready. Fifteen years ago today, I walked into the school my mother works at and had her say the most frightening two words I had heard uttered since I said, ?I do.? That was, ?Dad?s dead.?
Two weeks before Christmas and my dad was gone. Life didn?t care that dad had said he was going to come help me on a home project that night. Life didn?t care that he was only 54 and just received as clean of a bill of health as he could get two days earlier. It didn?t care that he never got to know he became a grandfather less than a year later. It certainly didn?t care that he left me of helping make a Christmas present for my wife of only two years. As he used to always tell me, ?Life doesn?t stop because you are sad or mad. It just keeps going. You will have to keep going.?
Why am I telling you all this?
Because he didn?t have a plan. He was only 54 and in decent health. (Or so we had thought.) He and Mom didn?t have a will. There was no succession plan for the farm. Nothing. Less than nothing. There wasn?t even life insurance, because he was gonna meet with his life insurance person to redo what he wanted to have set up. So, in that time his life insurance had lapsed. The small window in which the insurance lapsed and when he was going to set up something new was very small, but the Grim Reaper threaded that needle with pinpoint accuracy. Give him credit, he’s been doing it for a while.
I don?t write this for sympathy. My mom and I have come through this for the most part. Except on days like today. But, I remember the difficulty that we faced during that time. Thankfully, the extended family rallied around us and was there. Both Mom and Dad?s side of the family had someone with us for funeral planning and all that. My mother-in-law and my wife?s aunt came up from Missouri to help out. We were never alone in that time. However, life goes on. It always does.
Please, even though it is the holiday season, and it isn?t a pleasant topic, make sure that when the family gathers you know what is in place to protect the farm or the business and the ones you love. It is a simple task to do on your own, but a difficult one to do it immediately after you are gone.
Have the talk. Get it down in writing because we all know that the surest way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans.
