Autopay - when is it useful?

As part of preparation for some of the adverse life events (such as death or incapacitation) I posted an article with a plan which describes the preparation steps.

Liabilities is one of the categories on that plan.

 

It is useful to have a list with all bills and corresponding payment information so if necessary, the family members can find out easily which bills are payed when and how. 

Here are some examples: 
List of all credit cards 
Electricity
Security
Internet services
Cell phone
Cable/Netflix
Car insurance
Any other services you subscribe to 

I am using a list like this one:

Almost all of my bills are on autopay. They are paid automatically either from a checking account or from a credit card. The credit cards themselves are also on autopay. 

This autopay option is great to have when we go on vacation - no need to worry about  bills becoming overdue. 

And autopay should provide you time in case you will have to reorganize the payments after an event.

Almost all my bills are on autopay to a credit card (which gives 1% back on anything). I have one particular credit card which I use for bills only. This credit card is kept safely at home. I never take it with me anywhere or use it for anything else. 
I just don't want to go trough the hassle to call up every company on this autopay list in case the number gets stolen. 

When the card is close to the expiration date, it is easy to just get out the list and to update every account on the list with the new credit card expiration date. For those updates I use a list like that:

I usually pick a day in between the due dates, activate my new card and update everything in one day. 

Planning for AFTER retirement - do I need to do anything?

Planning for retirement takes time.
What about planning for after that? 
Or what about if you die even before you get a chance to retire? 
Should you care?

You might not care very much if you should die first. But if your spouse dies first, do you have a plan? 

So again, should you care?
If your spouse dies, being organized will help you.
If you die first, being organized will help your spouse. 
If you both die at the same time, it will help your children.

The death will either come as sudden and unexpected or as slow, protracted, and expected.

For the sudden option, it is definitely good to have everything prepared and set. There will be no time to ask questions or change anything. 
For the slow option you might have time, but you may be busy with other issues related to the sickness. 


It is good to just bring everything in order as soon as possible. After that, to stay current, updates will be needed as soon as something changes or at least once a year at the time of tax preparation.

I would separate the preparation in following categories.
1. Assets (mainly property and bank accounts).
2. Liabilities (mainly recurring bills and credit cards).
The additional category which is not directly connected to money but still important is 
3. Account access (logins and passwords).


1. Assets
If assets are only in the deceased name, everything will go to probate. Probate takes time and money.  Depending on where you live, probate process can cost 10% or more of your gross assets. 

I am in process of organizing our assets. We have a will, power or attorney and the living will. 
We don't have a trust. But do we really need one? See my answer to this question here.    


2. Liabilities
Recurring bills billed to a joint checking account should not be a problem. Those which a billed to a credit card account which only one one of the spouses owns might become difficult. See how I am organizing this here.


3. Account access (logins and passwords).
With some services you may need to log in to change the billing information. Some people recommend secure or locked apps to keep all passwords. It is a good solution, but remember you will also need the password to that app to open it. I think a paper copy kept secure somewhere in the house is still a good back up option.   


It will take some time to set up everything, but slowly one thing after another, working with a good to do list it could be done. I am giving myself 2-3 months to get it all finished.