Dear LPG,

I am not that old and have a family history of long-livers so I have always thought that it will be a long time before I need to worry about what will happen after my demise, but recently my youngest sibling, who was nowhere near pensionable age, died very suddenly. 

We all thought that he, more than any of us, had lots of time to live.  He was a bit of an entrepreneur and always had some scheme in progress, and the other members of his family did not know the full extent of his debts until after his death when his wife and children found themselves having to pay quite a few sums of money out very suddenly.  The fact is whatever your circumstances it is hard enough coming to terms with any death without adding financial problems into the mix.

I know we all have to go, but I have always been one of those people who decided that I could wait a bit before worrying about wills and those arrangements for my send-off, but it has occurred to me that it is the people that you leave behind that get the worst end of the stick at such a time.

So, I know that it has been said before, and will be again, but I just want to remind readers that they should not put everything off just in case they leave it too late. We also need to be reminding our children and younger family members of how important it is to do something about this.  Whoever you think may make such arrangements when the good Lord decides that it is your time to go, and even if you have children that have long left home and are in a better financial position than you, it is something, that once you have entered the world of work, it is never too early to think about.

We oldies need to be passing the message on along with the television advertisements.  Perhaps our younger family members will listen to us.  It would be better that they don’t have my family’s experience to teach them this lesson.

Perhaps it is a case of get it sorted and then… get on with your life.

GH, Sydenham

LPG has found some relevant advice that readers might pass on to younger family members.  

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