18 Apr Death Organization.

So, I’m a lawyer. This blog is primarily about law. There are tons and tons of blogs about the law. There’s even a name for them. “Blawgs”. Look, don’t comment me, I didn’t make it up. Anyway, I blawgged about death law (estate planning and probate) for eight years.

In that time, I also developed an addiction to design and organization blogs. And, the more I do death law, the more I realize that it’s more like design and organization than the courtroom drama in my favorite movie. What is that movie you say?…. Well, licensing rules keep me from showing you a gif… but let’s just say you can’t handle the truth.

Anyway. Back to the death law stuff.

Estate planning is planning ahead of time so that your legal affairs can be addressed in the most efficient way for your situation. And. It’s a heck of a lot like designing. Like any good design, you need to understand your  goal and you need to understand your constraints.

And. It’s also just organization.

Organized people have figured out the process that works for them and have the tools to make the process as efficient as possible, AND THEN KEEP UP ON IT. Organizing your after-life works the same way.

Have you ever organized a junk drawer?

And then for ever and ever, amen, it stayed organized?

Of course not.

Legal issues work the same way.

The first step is figuring what you have. You figure out where it should be and where it needs to go.

And. Just like you need the right kind of containers, you need the right kind of legal tools for your situation.

But just because you have nice containers, it doesn’t mean you’re done! You need to apply the tools to the things you have. And, as you get new things, you need to apply the tools to them, too.

So. This blog is about the law, but it’s also about looking at it from a much larger perspective. This blog is about the organizational issues around death. To help you understand the process involved, the tools to make the right process for you actually happen, and how to keep up on it.

Why? Not for your own benefit. It won’t be your headache. It’s something you do for the people who will grieve you.

Because the more organized the legal issues are, the more the people grieving you can focus on the important things…. which should not be the legal stuff.