funeral homes in Sterling Heights, MI

Planning for the Death of a Healthy Spouse

Funerals at funeral homes in Sterling Heights, MI may be the furthest thing from your mind right now. You and your spouse are healthy, working, and moving forward in life fulfilling the hopes and dreams you share.

However, as the years pass, the inevitability of death creeps in, even if both you and your spouse are the epitome of good health. While you’re healthy, though, is the time when you and your spouse, as a team, should be preparing for the time when either one of you might not be around.

Many people think that if they have a substantial life insurance policy, then they’ve done all they need to do to prepare for death and to ensure that their spouse is financially secure after they’re gone.

While everyone should have life insurance (whole life insurance is the best option, because even though premiums are higher than on term life insurance policies, the rates are locked in at the time you bought the policy, and it won’t expire before you do), there is much more that married couples should do to prepare for the death of one of the spouses.

One thing that should be done regularly is to make sure your wills are up-to-date. It’s not unusual for people to create a will sometime during their lives (usually at a momentous event like marriage or the birth or adoption of a child), put it away, and forget about it.

However, life changes over time and some of the information in your original wills may be obsolete or may have changed. It’s a good idea to sit down and review your wills every year and make sure everything in them is currently accurate and relevant.

If changes need to be made, then you can either have your attorney draw up new wills, or you can use online or offline software to make the changes you need to make. When you change and update your wills, sign and date them, at a minimum (it’s best if they’re witnessed and notarized as well, but signing and dating them makes them legally-binding instruments).

Shred all the copies of previous wills so that there will be no confusion among those you leave behind as to what your current wishes and intentions are with regard to your estate and your bequests.

Another way couples can prepare for the death of a spouse is to make sure that both spouses are on primary bank accounts, major credit cards, investment accounts, and retirement accounts.

However, it’s imperative that both spouses also have a bank account and at least one major credit card in their name only as well. This builds a separate credit history for each spouse that will make getting mortgages or other loans easier after one spouse dies.

Another way that couples should prepare for the death of a spouse is to manage income and household bills together. It’s not unusual, with most married couples, for one spouse to handle the finances and the other spouse to have very little knowledge about them. While that’s fine when both spouses are alive, it can be a real detriment when one spouse – the one who handled all the household finances – dies and the other spouse doesn’t know what’s going on.

For information about funerals at funeral homes in Sterling Heights, MI, our compassionate and experienced staff at Lee-Ellena Funeral Home can help. You can come by our funeral home at 46530 Romeo Plank Rd., Macomb, MI, 48044 or you can contact us today at (586) 412-8999.