Will You Won’t You Join the Dance?
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Do you have a will?
Many people are too scared, squeamish or confident of immortality to make one.
Yet if you’re in business, you really should.
One of my Brutal Briefing Questions for new clients is:
What would happen to your business if you died tonight?
More than 80% say their business would die with them!
Flitting round the world from meeting to seminar to presentation means we may collide one day.
And when you run a business, your death isn’t just about you.
Battle of Wills
First there’s your partner – and I mean both kinds.
If you leave early, could your co-vivant or business buddy possibly:
- Find and consolidate your various income streams and investments?
- Manage, sell or liquidate your business and its assets?
- Take and keep control of your intellectual property?
- Look after your staff?
Without a will, the best outcome is that you thrust a hideous, complex burden on those you trust and love, at the very moment they’re crushed by your demise.
The worst outcome is that your bed and board fellows don’t see eye-to-eye and start a war that destroys everyone and thing.
Do you really want that to befall your pets, parents, kids, clients, friends, suppliers, life’s work or legacy?
Will Power
The second thing about wills is that the standard form (or kit) doesn’t prompt you for modern developments like:
- Passwords.
- Online content (blogs, Squidoo lenses, ebooks).
- Passive income (affiliate, AdSense).
- Online identities (Twitter, Facebook).
Some of these will live as long as the Internet – generating residual income and kudos that should accrue to your estate long after you’re gone.
I notice one switched-on law firm now offers packaged services to run or wind up your online affairs after the show.
My Will
I wish to offer my organs and be placed in a biodegradable cardboard box signed by funeral attendees.
I then wish to be fed haltingly into a cremation device whose conveyor (apparently malfunctioning) will be synced by a hidden DJ to Spike Milligan’s Q5 Piano Tune.
I want my ashes scattered in a ten-metre diameter circle around my favourite seat in my favourite park, so my wife and doggies may literally sit in my company if they so wish.
These fatal attractions are not intuitive.
That’s why I’ve set them in print and discussed them with all involved.
That way, there’ll be no surprises, confusion or wrangling on the day.
I’d like to leave people laughing as I go.
And I hope to end up here.
My Won’t
Though explicit, my will is several years old.
I now have myriad online interests that no single person could hope to penetrate.
So I’m going to update my will with full administrative details very soon.
Then, if I’m clubbed to death by a childhood rival, Fonnie need only choose the charity to which my flower money goes.
I see the documentation of my wishes and the illumination of my affairs as a final, parting gift to my One True Love.
So, if you’re still too timid to express your will, think of those close to you and maybe think again.
And if you’d like to try before you buy it, check out Liferal.
Thy Will Be Done
I don’t expect to learn your final wishes (though that would be fascinating).
I do suspect you may have tales of funny, handy or faulty wills that illustrate some of these points.
Failing that, I’d like to know why you have or haven’t done a testament.
In fact,
I’m willing you on.
Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire
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Great article!
I backed my stepdad into making a will by saying ‘You spend x amount insuring your car every year, but you won’t insure your wife and family?’
It worked, but now I’m executor, so maybe the joke will be on me.
Thanks so much for sharing your story, PIB. Sounds like you got each other a beauty! I really appreciate you taking the time to visit. Best regards, P.
Rollicking, frank story Paul! How many childhood rivals are waiting in the wings? This isn’t a task I’ve considered yet. But you make some fundamentally pragmatic points. You’ve got me thinking …
Thank you, Ad. I suspect the numbers have multiplied in my mind, but you can’t be too careful these days.
As you’re one of the deepest thinkers I know, getting you thinking is akin to roll-starting a Caterpillar D11N.
So I’m very pleased.
Paul ~ If your life is anything like the number of different blogs I get diverted off to when I’m here to read a ’single’ post I hope you have left a ‘map’ of where to find everything!
And on a side note… I know you can only read one page at a time, but I have to air a pet peeve ~ when links open in the same window!
I like to make a sideways glance at these external refs and come back to them – which you can’t do if you’ve had to backtrack to the original page, and these tangents have gone ‘poof’ into thin air… Or is that your point, make the most of them while you have them?
Dear Linda, I am sorry about that!
I figured it’s better to look at a link, then hit the back arrow – rather than clutter the screen with multiple windows.
But YOU are the reader. And I believe it’s a fairly simple matter to grant your wish.
So I’ll reconfigure this post to that effect and see how you like it.
Meanwhile, if anyone else has a preference either way, please let me know.
Thanks, Linda!
I can only wonder how many of the ‘Angelic Horde’ have spirited by our Newsagencies casting an envious eye over our ‘Free Will Kits’…only on Planet Earth ey? There should be a big flashing sign hanging from our Moon that says “Who ya gunna call? – God-Busters!”. The music is optional…
I’d much prefer one of them thar fandangally ‘Will’ thangs, what works when I’m alive! I think I feel a T-Shirt coming on mate…’Dying to be…!’
I’ve always thought it was a bit ‘off’, that we seem to speak highly of dead folks at Funerals, our ‘Wills’ are ‘executed’ with at least as much glee and precision as we are, and our art is usually worth didly-squat until we kark-it! Now who started those trends I wonder? Ooh! You don’t think it was the original ‘God-Buster’ Franchisors do you?
Cheers
Stephen G
Always good to hear from you, Stephen.
For once I don’t have a smart RIPoste!
Ooh! Nice comeback Cobba ;-P
I’ve been a bit amiss of late as my trusty PC is on her last legs. My current Operating System is the ‘Blue Screen of Death’. I hope to be transmitting from more reliable ground soon…
.
Cheers
Stephen G
Tech drama is so debilitating. I greatly look forward to your increased signal strength, Stephen!
Hi Paul,
Just in case of said clubbing can you please make sure Fonnie has my number? Very nice plan. I certainly hadn’t considered the online representation for those dearly departed.
Death and the afterlife remains my single most favourite piece you have written.
Spike Milligan, nice retort…..
Hey Malcolm! So glad you like that piece. It has as much chance of being right as the 200,000,000 other theories out there.
OK gang, I’ve reset all links in this post to open new windows while keeping this window open.
I’d very much like to know if you prefer this new way.
If so, we can make it the norm going forward.
With best regards (and many thanks to Linda), P.
I’m sure you’re not saying Many thanks to Linda at all at the moment, as in my blog it does take an extra click to select, but thank you so much for your efforts ~
I’ll be interested to hear if anyone else has that preference – It just seems to make reading the blog with side notations all the fuller and more rewarding
Thank you Paul ;D
I’m very grateful to you, Linda; sorry if I didn’t articulate that properly!
If you’ve given voice to a hitherto unspoken peeve of many, you’ve done us all a great service!
Hi Paul,
Fantastic post. On a related note, you may be interested in this article, “What Happens to Your Social Media Accounts When You Die?”. It makes for interesting reading.
http://decorative-urns.com/cremation-blog/managing-grief/what-happens-to-social-media-accounts-when-you-die/
Cheers,
Sarah
Thanks heaps, Sarah! That link looks tremendous. Reading now …
… That’s an absolute corker. Really lays it out in clear detail. Thanks again, Sarah!
Sarah ~ That is amazing ~ What a thought that we’ll need digital funeral directors to bury our on line presence!
Re the NEW window debate – I just asked on Twitter:
Q: Do you prefer LINKS to open in a new window? Or open in the same window?
I received 10 replies, 9 out of the 10 categorically said they preferred a new window and the 10th liked a new window if they were using firefox, but preferred it to stay in the same window when they were on IE
Dare I say, the debate is dead and buried?
Wow, Linda. Thanks SO much for doing that research for us. The stuff I learn in here never ceases to amaze me.
I’ll certainly apply this to all my other blogs.
Naomi, with your permission, we’ll set all future links to open in new windows per Linda’s recommendation.
Thanks for the feedback Linda! Paul – sounds like a plan!
Sarah – very interesting link there!
Thanks, Naomi; I’ll lock in [B]!
BTW, it’s Fonnie’s birthday today.
What better gift than a promise to update my will?!
Surely that’s better than shoes …
It was nice knowin’ ya mate!
Can I have your Camera?
Oh! And Happy Birthday Fonnie…forgive him, for sooth, he had no bluddy idea what he speaketh! ;-P
Cheers
Stephen G
Thanks, Cobber; the camera is yours.
Now: who’d like my well-worn copy of ‘Wake in Fright’?
I feel like Bligh carving up a noddy in a row boat from The Bounty.
‘Who shall have this?’
Happy Birthday Fonnie!
Gosh a will. It has crossed my mind and I have mentioned to my wife what she should do if I was to pass on. I have also thought about what might need to happen should we both pass on at the same time. Without a business of my own, my situation is probably not as complex as other however there are assets and debt to worry about.
Great topic and its something I should make as an objective for this year.
I’m glad we struck a chord, Arthur. It’s a touchy subject, but I reckon we’re better chatting about it than not.
And with thousands of sick people waiting for a second chance at life, that organ donation caper is well worth a good think too. Thank you for commenting. P.
Just got a handy heads up from our Helen Robinett:
‘What if I die and my partner remarries – will my kids share in my estate? • How can I grow my money with what I have? • But I can’t throw those jeans out – what if I can fit into them again one day?!’
http://www.linkedin.com/osview/canvas?_ch_page_id=1&_ch_panel_id=1&_ch_app_id=7083120&_applicationId=2000&_ownerId=0&appParams=%7B%22go_to%22:%22events/420006%22,%22referrer%22:%22public%22%7D
Thanks Helen!