Life is eternal; and love immortal;    and death is only an horizon;    and an horizon is nothing save    the limit of our sight.            Rossiter Worthington Raymond

Here's What NOT To Do With Your  Will.

Unless you hold a joint account with a spouse or family member, do NOT keep your only copy of a will in a bank's safety deposit box.  

Retrieving it will be unnecessarily difficult for your executor.  

Your lawyer's safe is the best place.

Funeral instructions?

It's fine to put some basic funeral instructions in your will.  Do your prefer burial?  Cremation?  A service?  

But these instructions and other detailed preferences also should also be kept separately or as an attachment to your will.  (Flowers?  Music?  Reserved cemetery plot? Previous instructions placed with a funeral provider?)  

Here's why:  Funeral arrangements generally are made within 48 hours of a death and most wills are not read until after a funeral is completed.  So write your instructions and tell  your executor or your family where your list of preferences is being safe kept.

Separate list of beneficiaries.

To eliminate the cost and trouble of amending your will, it is advisable to keep a separate list of beneficiaries of household possessions, jewelry and other heirlooms.  This way, you can amend the list when you wish, with minimum expense or difficulty.  

Be clear about your preferences.

A Catholic woman who test read this site for us later talked to her husband to discover that he did not know the first thing she wanted upon her death was a visit by a priest.  This fundamental requirement for her was seemingly unknown to her husband.

Never assume people know your preferences.  Write them down.  Tell your spouse, your family or your executor where you instructions are.

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