Significant Talk

Eleven years ago Betty (wife) and I had a meeting with a Lawyer and established an Estate Plan. We didn't have a lot, but we did own a house and had some investments, including IRA's. It seemed appropriate to lay out some plans about what to do when we were gone. We determined to name our oldest and youngest sons as co-trustees to manage things when both of us had died. Both live in Montana and both were unmarried at that time. They are still single. I was in my mid-70's, already much older than my father and older brothers at their deaths. The assumption was that I would die before Betty. Didn't happen. She died nearly 4 years ago at age 80. I will be 85 in a couple of weeks.

Today I had that talk with the successor trustees that many elders are reluctant to have with their children. Ken was inn town for a meeting so I picked up up and with Pete we talked about the Estate and my suggestions about what should be done when I am dead. (I've had by-pass surgery twice - the last time in October 1980; a stent placed in a coronary artery in 2006; have a CT scan showing a closing of my aortic valve with a lot of stuff around it which could very well go to my brain if surgery was done. There is also a minimal Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm. As I told the sons. the talk today was "just in case". I feel pretty good a this time and am taking things easy. I fully understand the nature of my health and have signed up for "Comfort One". This, in Montana at least, means: "Make him comfortable and do not resuscitate". Again, I have no anticipation that this might happen soon. I simply felt that the TALK should be done and that the 'trustees' should be acquainted with my computer programs.