A K-9 police officer, Ryan Allen had the foresight to be somewhat prepared for his own death. In fact, he had both life insurance and disability insurance to protect his family.

“He could be injured or even killed on the job and wanted to be sure if anything happened to him, we would be taken care of,” his wife, Whitney Lyn Allen Gadecki, told The Epoch Times.

However, what happened was entirely unexpected. Allen went into cardiac arrest and suffered severe, irreparable brain damage after an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting in 2021. The couple had a toddler, and Gadecki was pregnant with their second child at the time.

Yet day-to-day life was made a bit calmer because they had forethought about insurance. Allen also had his passwords neatly organized in his phone. That made it easy for Gadecki to pay a credit card bill that was in his name only.

Allen’s prognosis was uncertain while he lay in a vegetative state for months, and then came the agonizing decision about whether to continue life support when brain swelling receded to reveal that he would not recover. Allen left no legal documents or wishes for these circumstances. Gadecki said he really hated discussing death because it was a realistic possibility with his career.

“I had to make the decision on my own,” Gadecki said. “You don’t want to think about your spouse dying. I will not lie, it was a terrible thing to watch.”

Tragic, often unexpected, situations like this play out every day. The emotional burden and anxiety is lessened the more prepared someone is for their own death. Stories such as Allen’s reveal why it’s so important to leave paperwork for every conceivable circumstance in one place—a legacy box or drawer—to your loved ones without delay.

Filling Your Legacy Box

You can organize your legacy box around key categories to make compiling it simple, according to Paul Brewer, founder of Legacy Project 360, which offers an online legacy box service.

Financial

Be sure to include the name and contact information of the account manager when relevant.

• All bank account information
• Health and life insurance policies
• Cryptocurrency
• Real estate and other assets
• Tax returns
• All credit card account information and passwords
• Monthly cash flow documents

Household

• Deeds to personal property
• Disaster preparedness plans

Records and Documents

• Medical forms and records
• Prescription information
• Living will and trust documents
• Power of attorney
• Advance directives
• Employment information and pensions

Personal/Family

• Funeral and/or memorial preferences
• Important and emergency contacts
• Pet care information

“The most important things are your wills, trusts, and advance directives, and the second one is financial stuff,” Brewer said. “If you do nothing else, that’s 80 percent of the battle.”

He noted that it is helpful to think about the kind of information you might have access to that your spouse may not or may have trouble remembering in an emergency situation.

A spouse who doesn’t refill prescriptions for other family members may not be able to easily track down that information. Or if one spouse handles financials, the other may have to engage in major detective work just to keep the household running.

Other Steps to Take

Ramsey Solutions, a personal finance solutions company, advocates for a legacy drawer to give relatives peace of mind. Single-headed families should share the legacy box location and access information with a trusted adult.

Ramsey Solutions also suggests to:

Include a Cover Letter

This should detail everything that’s in the legacy drawer or box, much like a table of contents describes at a glance what you’ll find in a book. It doesn’t need to be formatted like a letter.

Share Passwords

Keep all passwords with usernames, combinations, and PIN numbers in your legacy drawer. Make sure your family can access everything of yours when you’re gone.

Include Legacy Letters

Write notes to let your loved ones know how much you appreciate them as the ultimate legacy gift.

Update Your Drawer

Your legacy drawer should evolve as your life does. Schedule a “Legacy Day” every six months to review and refresh your documents.

You can make it meaningful by turning these updates into family traditions, according to Brewer.

For young families, this might mean having kids decorate the drawer’s cover or write their own legacy letters.

To streamline the process, consider using a digital or printable template readily available online. Many resources, such as Etsy and Ramsey Solutions, offer helpful templates and guidance.

Removing Panic From Grieving

A paramedic firefighter, Brewer is often with families in extreme duress and sometimes after losing a loved one. He’s witnessed the chaos that ensues in the throes of tragedy when a family hasn’t kept paperwork in order or discussed what to do in emergencies.

“It starts with grief and then it goes into panic once someone realizes they have no idea what the last wishes and rights of that person were. One we had about six months ago was a lady who had no idea what the bank login information was so she could pay bills,” he said.

On the other hand, Brewer has been with families who calmly walk to a safe and pull out everything they need.

His own family had to test out an early version of his legacy binder—back when he only made a print copy—as they were evacuated from their California house during wildfire season. He wasn’t at home, but his wife was able to grab the children, animals, and the safe with the legal binder without panic.

Brewer’s personal and professional circumstances inspired him to launch his business this year. Ideally, he said, anyone should be able to step into a tragedy, grab the legacy box, and know what steps to take.

With many of the pieces in place for Gadecki, who was juggling work and motherhood at the time of her late husband’s tragedy, she was able to make decisions based on her emotional needs, rather than out of financial necessity. Having a nest egg, if possible, is very important, too, she said.

She’s since quit her job as a lawyer and started her own business as a grief coach. Her second book, “What Must Be Carried: Living a Beautiful Life Beyond Loss,” will be published in March.

Plan for enough life insurance or savings for taking care of the funeral, debts, and bills for as long as you might need to attend to grieving without worrying about income, Gadecki said.

“Maybe you can take time off of work if you have those things in order, because it’s really hard to jump back into life after you’ve suffered tragedy. Your brain is altered,” she said. “Giving yourself the space and time to be able to financially take a pause is really important.”

Don’t Wait to Act

Gadecki recently remarried. She and her new husband have been even more thorough in creating a legacy drawer. Everything was considered and prepared—including his adoption of her two sons—before the wedding.

Part of being a family is to take care of one another, she said. She added that preparation, even with costs like buying insurance and updating legal documents, is a worthwhile investment to be ready for the unexpected while still hoping that nothing terrible happens.

“Have the hard conversations and have things in order, especially if you have kids,” Gadecki said.

“Everybody has that mindset that, ‘Oh, we have time.’ Sometimes you don’t. You run out of time.”