Be warned, this is not for the faint of heart...but necessary. If you are at all concerned about what will happen to your life's work/possessions, etc. you need to get a legal will made by an attorney. I can assure you, it will NOT be a happy experience -- because you HAVE to face the fact you will one day die, be gone, cease to exist.
Yeah, yeah...I know...YOU already know that. Or do you? Only when you truly CONFRONT it by putting down in black-and-white what you want done after your death in a legal document you KNOW will only be valid after your death, does it truly hit you as reality. Try it, you'll see what I mean.
I know because, even though I've contemplated suicide often, contemplation is abstract, not concrete. I don't think I'm afraid to die (as long as I don't have to suffer terribly long), just that trying to work with documents you know will be left behind for family has a depressing tendency. Especially since I had to write a letter for my family, explaining my decisions/wishes more clearly, and what would happen to everything after my death. I wanted to do this because I know the squabbles and hassles families get into after someone dies, and this is MY personal handwritten message from beyond the grave.
Then I had to get all my necessary papers together, such as house deeds/car title, living will, you-name-it, and put all this stuff in a fireproof box where it can stay in one of my antique trunks for access should something happen to me. Not a fun way to occupy a couple of days, let me assure you.
EXTREMELY NECESSARY THOUGH IF YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO HAPPEN TO YOUR FUNDS/HOME/POSSESSIONS ONCE YOU ARE NO LONGER IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING!
Get on it, if you haven't already. And this goes for those of you married, otherwise your spouse will end up in probate court involved in legal hassles UNLESS your state law honors the joint ownership of property and EVERY SINGLE THING YOU OWN is in both your names on legal documents.
{Of course, if you just want to leave behind a big mess for your family to deal with, and get into fights over, then heck, just ignore making a will.}
I'll end with this link to an excellent article for those of us in our mid-life passages into old age:
The First Day of the Rest of My Life
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