Today's Caregiver - Tomorrow's CEO of the Afterlife

Caring for an aging parent is emotional, time intensive, and uncertain. You want to make choices that best align with your parent’s wishes while keeping peace in the family. Often times, that means providing your parent’s important information at a moment’s notice.

Adult children who are caregivers today are likely to be executors in the future. Unfortunately, some accept the role without even understanding what the word "executor" means. When someone dies, an executor (personal representative in some states) is identified either through a will or court appointment. As “CEO of the afterlife”, it is the executor’s responsibility to manage virtually all aspects of the estate settlement process.

Duties of an executor or personal representative typically include:

• Security and care of the family, including attending to immediate financial needs
• Assistance in funeral and/or cremation arrangements and organ donation, if applicable
• Interpreting the will and trust agreements, or presiding intestate laws
• Identifying, collecting and protecting your loved one's assets
• Determining which assets must be probated, and which can be transferred directly to the named beneficiaries
• Managing any existing real estate, businesses (e.g., physical or online), and investments until the estate is settled
• Notifying your loved one's creditors and settling their claims
• Filing all applicable federal and state tax returns, both for the estate and your loved one
• Paying your loved one's taxes and other expenses
• Distributing the remaining assets to beneficiaries according to the terms of the will, or state law (if intestate), or trust agreements.
• Providing a complete and accurate accounting of all financial transactions

Serving as an executor is often a daunting and time-consuming task, even for sophisticated individuals. This is especially true when the estate is spread across different states, and beneficiaries are scattered across the country.

Now for the good news. As a caregiver, you may already have a lot of your parent’s important information. At Executor's Resource, we designed EstateLogic® to be the caregiver’s tool to manage today’s information and tomorrow’s transition. We invite you to let EstateLogic be your guide in:

• Making important information more accessible
• Capturing the right information

Caregivers and their loved ones use EstateLogic collaboratively to gather and store financial, legal and personal information all in one safe, secure online location. Whether you live next door or across the country, you’ll have access whenever you need it, making your role as caregiver today and executor tomorrow easier. We stand ready to help.

We'd like to hear from you. Are you a caregiver today who will be a future executor? Are you a current executor who previously served as caregiver? Share your story with us here.