Death

Recently, a friend’s sister passed away. He remarked that it was too fast, and too soon to say goodbye. Death is final. It is inevitable. “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”[1]. That truth is hard to swallow. While we are living longer, we won’t live forever. Today, our average age is around 85, and insurers have projected that some of us will live to 120. But one day, we will die. Death is final, at least for this side of eternity. Queen Elizabeth on her death bed had said, “Oh, I would give my kingdom for one moment more”[2]. Queen (no relation to royalty) croons a anti climatic response: “Who wants to live forever.”

But while life on earth ends, the impact doesn’t immediately fade away. When we die, each of us will leave a legacy. The question is, what legacy do you want to leave? A good legacy is the culmination of a good life. A good legacy means living a good life, being a person that people will want to be around. A bad legacy will impact your surviving family. Leaving behind huge debts, family squabbles, and an ugly ending are examples of bad legacy. But one way or another, we will leave a legacy.

Three things need to be done to leave behind a good legacy.

a. Financial Plan

b. Estate Plan

c. Funeral Plan

The first part of leaving behind a legacy is the one that will consume most of your life. It is creating the legacy to distribute. That is in essence your financial plan. And it is more than merely leaving money behind. Jk Rowling, through Dumbledore says, ”to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure[3]”. When we have a well-organized life, we can face challenges head on. A well organised life includes robust financial planning, considering different possible curveballs in life. Illness, injury, huge financial losses can hit us at any point in time. When you get thrown into such difficult times, how will your financial situation change?

Without a robust financial plan, the ending might not be sweet. There might be debts that cannot be covered, struggles in your last days. Instead of leaving a good legacy, an ugly picture might be painted.

A robust financial plan ensures that contingencies are planned for. Having a robust financial plan helps mitigate the impact of illness, or injuries. Other risks include living for too long; what if you outlive your savings? A robust financial plan helps you plan your life, allowing you to live both in the now and in the future.

Your estate plan is the second thing you need to leave behind as a part of a good legacy. This is how you want your estate, or your remaining assets, to be distributed. It is most commonly executed through a will. Your will dictates how you want your estate[4] to be distributed, specifying who receives the money and when. You can choose, for example, to allocate more money to the poorest members of your family, to help them. Regardless, a good will should allow the family to readjust to life without the decedent.

Without a will, your estate will be distributed intestate, which is the state’s pre-defined distribution rules. This can make it messy especially if you want to leave someone more money, due to need. A will allows you to distribute your estate to anyone in any share. A good will can also help mitigate ugly fights as family members know they are being looked after.

While anyone can write a will, it is better to do it with a someone trained to do so. A will must be clear. It must state your wishes from when you can no longer speak. It has to be unambiguous and precise. It will have to deal with issues that may arise in the future. The last thing that you want, quite literally the last thing, is for the will to be nullified and your wishes unable to be understood or followed.

The funeral plan is the last thing you need to leave as part of a good legacy. When we die, the immediate next step is usually a wake and a funeral. This process allows for closure. Wakes are where the living gets a snippet of the life lived by the departed. But funerals will have a cost. Moneysmart[5] puts the published funeral package costs at between $4,000 to $23,777. These cover only the standard packages and the final bill can be vastly different with the level of bespoke services available. Because it is during a time of grief, decision making becomes a huge burden; sometimes we make the wrong decision out of an attempt to hide the grief, or we want to make the easiest choice just to avoid thinking. This can push the cost of funerals sky high, making an already painful situation worse when the survivors have to bear the cost.

This step is important for two reasons: one for your wishes to be made clear and two, so that at the time of grief, your family members do not need to stress themselves to make decisions. At the very least, you should leave some money so that your surviving family can afford to have some closure.

Planning for your funeral is a hard thing to do. You are not around to specify what your wishes are. Your funeral plan is like your voice from the grave. The details of the funeral can and should be discussed with a loved one, and with a funeral director to assist you on the steps to be taken. The director will help you plan for various situations so that your wishes can be carried out.

Death is really like a report card of life. Death is looking at how you lived, and letting others see your impact. So far, we have only dealt with the financial aspects of death. How about other aspects of life? The non-material aspects? The intangibles that we leave behind. That is something that you will need to consider.

“When you were born you were crying and everyone else was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone else is crying”[6]. What is the legacy you want to leave behind when you die?

[1] Benjamin Franklin, https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/benjamin-franklins-last-great-quote-and-the-constitution

[2] http://www.online-literature.com/twain/2848/

[3] Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

[4] Not all assets are distributed by will. Most notably, your CPF monies are NOT distributed by a will but by CPF nomination. Furthermore, your assets held jointly are usually under a ‘right of survivorship’, which means those assets will pass straight through to the surviving partner. It is important that these assets be planned for and the necessary procedures be undertaken.

[5] https://blog.moneysmart.sg/budgeting/funeral-services-singapore/#arrange-funeral

[6] Ralph Waldo Emerson