By Rick Waechter, Founder

Next year, I will turn 65. Like most people who face that milestone, I find it hard to believe.

While I have no plans to retire (or to die) any time soon, that does not exempt me, or anyone 65+, from doing what I’ll call Hit-By-a-Bus (“HBAB”) planning.

HBAB planning is simple, but too seldom done. It is planning for the possibility, however remote, that you will die in the next few years.

According to Social Security, a 65-year-old male has a 10% chance of dying within 5 years, and a female 6%. Most men will see that statistic and focus on the 90% (and women the 94%). My message: prepare for the smaller %. I don’t mean to wallow in your, or my, mortality. I mean to take simple steps so that, if you are in the unlucky, small minority, your spouse or children will not be left with a total financial mess.

I’m not going to write about life insurance. By age 65, most readers will not need it – and, in any event, most of you were careful enough to buy sufficient coverage when you needed it. I’m not going to write about saving or budgeting. They are important topics – but ones we have written about frequently.

Instead, I will remind you of the steps I fear many people have yet to take. If you do nothing else, please follow this basic list.

1. Execute basic estate planning documents: create a last will, living trust (for most readers), health care and financial powers of attorney, and advance health care directives. These documents define where your assets will go when you die, and they give specific people the ability to act for you if you are incapacitated. If you have them, great – make sure they are up to date. Also check the beneficiaries of your retirement plans. Your last will and living trust do not control who inherits your retirement plans.
2. Create a comprehensive list of financial assets and make sure your spouse or executor has the list and understands it.
3. Create a list of logins – to financial accounts, social media, etc. – and make sure your spouse or executor knows how to access it. The optimal solution is a password manager, which should have all your logins and passwords. Make sure someone has the password to the password manager.
4. Do an “HBAB drill”. This is like a fire drill. Imagine you have just died, and ask yourself: what financial housekeeping items may be missed? For example, is there a list of the bills you pay regularly, and how you pay them? Do you have a home safe or safety deposit box and, if so, does someone else know how to get in? Do you have a list of key people to contact when you die, whether a spiritual leader or close friends?

I get it. This is seriously depressing reading. Just writing it has sucked the energy out of me. But if you invest a bit of time, it will pay off. Anyone in their 60s is very likely to live for many years. But life comes with no guarantees.