ESTATE PLANNING DURING THE PANDEMIC

Here’s how to prepare for the worst in this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

- STACY RAPACON

Kip Rupple, 62, of Muskego, Wis., plays guitar in a classic rock band on the weekends. He and his wife, Roni Kramer, 56, ride Harleys. They know how to have a good time, but they’ve lived enough to know when to take life seriously.

Last year, Rupple saw the wife of one his best friends get sick and die. “I remember how painful it was for them while she was on her deathbed, having attorneys in there doing estate plans for the two of them,” he says. “I would never want that, and now the situation with COVID made me realize it’s probably a good time to get ahead of that sort of thing.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has made 2020 a nightmare for many people around the world, and inadequate estate planning can exacerbate the pain. Certified financial planner Stacy Francis, president and chief executive of Francis Financial, in New York City, recently helped a client whose husband passed away in the hospital due to COVID complications. “She came to us with screenshots of his last texts to her that were frantically sent and trying to outline their investment accounts, where their money was and what she needed to do,” Francis says.

Since then, Francis and the widow have worked together to take control of her financial situation and update her own estate plan. That’s the thin silver lining Francis hopes people take away from her client’s story. “While there’s been so much heartache due to COVID, use this as an opportunity to get your estate plan in order, get your life insurance in order, get your financial ducks in order,” she says.