No Slowing Down

WHO HAS TIME TO die? I never realized death would be so busy.

I thought I had my financial affairs in good order. But in the two months since my cancer diagnosis, I’ve made countless financial tweaks, mostly with a view to making things easier after my death for my wife Elaine and my two children.

Here are just some of the steps I’ve taken:

I took my two checking accounts—my personal account and the business account for HumbleDollar—and made Elaine the joint account holder with rights of survivorship. One reason for the switch: My personal account is automatically debited for all utilities and other household bills, and the change in titling should make it easier for Elaine to keep tabs on things after my death.
I’ve cancelled two of my four credit cards, and plan to cancel one more once I’ve used the rewards I’ve accumulated. That’ll leave just one card. Elaine has two cards of her own, so we’ll have a backup if a card gets hacked, lost or stolen during the trips we have planned for the months ahead.
I closed a small IRA I inherited from my father in 2009. It had just $6,700 in it, but I’d hung on to it, partly for sentimental reasons and partly to avoid the income-tax bill triggered by liquidating the account. But after my diagnosis, I figured shutting down the account would be one less thing for my family to deal with.
I rolled over the solo 401(k) I had at Vanguard Group—which was all Roth dollars—into my Roth IRA. That, too, means one less thing to deal with after my death. Even before my diagnosis, I was irked that Vanguard was turning over administration of its solo 401(k) operation to another company, another tell-tale sign of the firm’s weak commitment to less important lines of business. But with my diagnosis, I also realized I was less interested in saving for the future and more focused on giving, and that’s where my extra dollars will go from now on, rather than into my solo 401(k).
I’m in the middle of getting a new will, along with medical and financial powers of attorney. Yes, I’m finally getting those powers of attorney—a missing piece of my financial life that I’d acknowledged last year and which triggered some well-deserved tut-tutting from commenters.
I tweaked my IRA’s beneficiary designations. My two children will split my Roth IRA, which seems like the tax-smart way to go, because emptying that account over 10 years won’t mean extra taxable income on top of their current salaries. Meanwhile, Elaine and my kids will share my traditional IRA, with its embedded income-tax bill.
I added Elaine as the beneficiary of my modest health savings account and the variable annuity I bought through Vanguard more than two decades ago. I purchased the latter when I was maxing out on my other retirement accounts and looking for further tax-deferred growth. Like its solo 401(k) operation, Vanguard’s variable annuity business was unceremoniously turned over to another financial firm, in this case Transamerica.
I have a few banker’s boxes of financial papers stashed in the basement, which I’m now in the midst of pruning. Among other things, those boxes include every tax return since 1986, when I moved to the New York area from London. Yes, there’s some serious shredding to be done.
I forgave the private mortgage I wrote for my daughter in 2015. That'll necessitate me filing a gift-tax return for 2024, thereby reducing my $13.61 million federal estate-tax exemption. But given that my estate won't be worth anywhere close to $13.61 million, there's no financial downside.
I’ve also made financial gifts to my new grandson and son. But if I don’t live for 12 months after making these various gifts, all concerned—my so-called lineal descendants—will face Pennsylvania’s 4.5% inheritance tax on all but $3,000 of the gifts. That isn’t an issue with Elaine, who as my spouse isn’t subject to the inheritance tax. Even before my diagnosis, we’d planned to get married. We moved up the date when I got the bad news.

There’s still more to come: I need to move various insurance policies—such as homeowner’s, flood and umbrella liability—into Elaine’s name. Ditto for various utility bills. I also need to make Elaine the person responsible for purchasing the various technology services that keep HumbleDollar humming along. And as I mentioned a few weeks ago, we’re still trying to figure out the best Social Security claiming strategy for Elaine, knowing she may be able to receive my benefit as a survivor benefit.

Jonathan Clements is the founder and editor of HumbleDollar. Follow him on X @ClementsMoney and on Facebook, and check out his earlier articles.

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