Navigating the loss of a parent

Angie’s family has had a few unexpected tragedies occur over the past couple years. Her dad suddenly passed away in January 2020. Her Father-in-law had Parkinsons and passed away in April 2018. Neither her dad nor father-in-law had all the life documents in place necessary to help prepare for the unexpected.

Angie’s husband had to help his step-mom work through all the issues for her father-in-law. This took a few months to figure out and finalize her father-in-law’s estate. Angie and her sister had to help her mom with her dad’s more complex estate. Her dad was a business owner so an estate was set up, however, it was lacking specific details needed to execute efficiently. Most of the critical information for Angie’s dad was in the hands of her dad’s attorney. To make matters worse this attorney ironically passed away at the same time as her dad! It was a mess to work through his estate. It took over a year and half to finally close out the estate.

After both of these events Angie has taken a more proactive approach to prepare for the unexpected. Angie and her husband have their own business. They have a will and trust now in place, as well as a succession plan for her family and business if something were to happen. Angie and her husband currently meet once a month to talk about bills and finances.

Angie has tried to take a more active role with the rest of her family to prepare for the unexpected. Angie feels that Addio is a great tool for her sister and mom to implement. Angie has verbally let her family members know about their plan for the unexpected but feels that Addio provides a higher level of detail and organization for such events.

Angie’s advice to others is even if your family is stubborn and not wanting to plan ahead, do what you can do. There are so many things you don’t think about until you have to. One example was the funeral expenses needed to be paid up front. That was a fee Angie and her husband had to pay out of pocket. Her dad’s life insurance wouldn’t pay out until several months later. Angie was not able to properly grieve and celebrate her father’s life because she was so absorbed with his estate after he passed. Start having proactive conversations with your loved ones.