The Gardens at Boca Raton is a wonderful final resting place, but we work to offer so much more than that. If you want to plan ahead and give your loved ones peace and solace once you are gone, a great way to help is by planning your legacy — which goes well beyond just planning the arrangements for your funeral. This process will go over all of the details of how you’d like to be remembered in death and can make sure that the things you hold important are passed on.
Things like covering expenses, making above-ground interment or cremation plans, organizing your memorial service, and even how your personal assets will be distributed are all important parts of your legacy planning, and each of these steps can be addressed with the team at The Gardens to make sure that your family does not need to think about these details while they are honoring you in death.
What is Legacy Planning, and Why is it Important?
Legacy planning isn’t complicated, but it can be overwhelming for loved ones and family members to make sense of any unresolved details after the loss of their loved one. This is why it’s an important and thoughtful gift that you can leave behind by tying up all of these loose ends beforehand. You can select details like your casket, epitaph, and the rest of the details about your funeral at The Gardens at Boca Raton so your loved ones don’t have to. We can even design a pre-payment plan, so your loved ones don’t need to think about finances in their time of mourning.
Legacy planning is a thoughtful parting gift for your loved ones that will make sure that your story lives on after you, your wishes are honored, and your loved ones are able to focus on mourning because you have taken care of a lot of the administrative details of an end-of-life celebration. You will be remembered as thoughtful in death, just as in life.
Documenting Your Legacy: Writing Ethical Wills and Legacy Letters
When you pass, the hope is that your values and beliefs will be transmitted to the coming generations. An ethical will is a way to leave behind these intangible aspects of your legacy to be passed on. Here’s how you can start documenting these details through an ethical will and legacy letter:
- Reflect on your life experiences and highlight the values you hold most important. These will be the key messages you hope to pass along.
- Create an outline of the topics and values you want to discuss. What are the key messages and lessons you want to communicate based on your values?
- Write to your audience about the importance of these values and lessons, including personal stories, family history, and other reasons why you believe these are important enough to be carried out.
- Decide how and when you want to share your ethical will. If you aren’t sure about this step, The Gardens will be able to help you determine the best timing for this step during the legacy planning process.
- As you move forward with life, make sure that you return to your ethical will and update it to reflect any changes or additions based on your experiences.
Digital Legacy: Managing Your Online Presence After Death
As we progress through the 21st century, our digital legacies become more and more prominent. It’s important that you make a plan to have your online presence managed after your death by a trusted friend or family member, starting by determining what that actually looks like.
- Make an inventory of your digital assets, including email addresses, social media accounts, blogs, and any assets stored in the cloud.
- Choose an executor who will manage these assets after your death. This needs to be someone you trust.
- Determine what you would like to happen with each of these digital assets. Would you like them deleted, shared, memorialized, or transferred to someone else? Each of your assets will need to have specific instructions.
- Secure your assets and make sure that your executor has access to them once you are gone, possibly by using a password vault or issuing a master password.
- Update your plan regularly.
Charitable Giving in Legacy Planning: Leaving a Lasting Impact
If you plan to leave behind charitable donations as a part of your legacy, the team at The Gardens can help you develop a plan for distributing these assets and donations once you are gone. This is a beautiful way to show the world what things you help important, both in life and in death.
Legacy Planning for Small Business Owners: Ensuring Continuity and Succession
It’s important that you work with a business lawyer to develop a plan to make sure that your business is able to continue once you are gone. The Gardens at Boca Raton can help point you in the direction of professionals who can help you through this important and complicated legal process to ensure that your hard work continues in the world.
