Beth Pinsker

of the family handled all the finances.

It was all in his head.

He knew when all the bills were due.

He knew how much money was in each account.

And they were sort of short on money.

So he was always moving things from one place to another to cover bills.

And then he got sick and was out of commission for three weeks.

And his wife didn't know how to do any of it.

Bills didn't get paid like essential bills, not just like, you know, oh, that can wait till next month kind of bills.

This was like your electric is going to get cut off.

Your mortgage is going to go into arrears.

Your credit rating is going to go in the toilet because you haven't paid all of these bills.

And they were in real trouble because he had not given a roadmap to his spouse or anybody else in the family.

So a death file can be anything.

One man I spoke to for a story long ago had a file folder on his computer desktop that said DEATH in all capital letters.

And it was like a Microsoft file icon.

And so when his son went looking for the papers he needed, he just double clicked the icon and it was like, oh man, this is everything I need.

My mom used, you know, manila folders that were very clearly labeled.

Where was the life insurance?

It was in a folder labeled life insurance.