Preparation for Losing a Life Partner

Introduction

It a sad fact of getting older that we become increasingly aware of our own mortality. And eventually, for those of us who are in a long-term relationship, we have to face the spectre of losing our partner, or of them losing us. Obviously, if we're old enough to be in retirement, then this is even more of a factor in our minds, and like everything else, we should plan for it.

Losing a life partner is obviously a big deal. In the natural order of things this should happen very late in life, but we all know that's not always the case. And that means that much as we'd like to ignore the idea, we should be prepared as much as we can. I want to look at preparations you can make before the worst happens and then some thoughts about what needs to happen afterwards.

Simplify Things

This will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who's listened to more than one or two episodes of this podcast. Simplification has so many benefits that it should really just be assumed and pursued as a matter of course.

I have a rule of thumb that you should make your finances as simple as possible to administer, but no simpler. That is, simplicity mustn't come at the cost of being able to do what you need to do.

I had a conversation recently with a client whom we are advising on their retirement decumulation process – how they’re going to spend the money from their various pots. It's looking like they're going to find it easier to manage the near-term and long-term pots of their pension on two different platforms. Simplicity would suggest having one platform, but in this case, it'll actually be easier to have two.

Take a long look at your finances. Can you list everything to do with your income, outgoings, pensions, investments, bank accounts and all that stuff on, say, two sides of A4? If not, then it's probably too complicated.

If you're the partner who dies first, you want your other half to be able to pick up where you left off quickly and easily, even if they're not financially savvy. They can get help with the day-to-day, but having everything constructed as simply as possible will make their life MUCH easier. If you have a degree of separation in your finances, then think about what is likely to be passing to your partner and make sure they know about all that.