Estate planning is not just about what happens when you pass away. It's also about planning for when you can not live your life. How do you pay your bills? Many people now pay their bills online or on their phone. If you were unable to get online or your phone because you were incapacitated, is there someone else who knows how to access your email, bank accounts, etc? Is there someone who would even know what bills you need to pay? I'm not advocating you start giving your family and friends access to everything. But start thinking about who you trust to give access.

You need a plan in place of how would someone know what bills you pay. I pay a lot of my bills using the Bill Pay option through my bank, but I pay my student loans differently. One notice goes to one email, and another to a different email. It is important to me that my student loans are paid or that someone contacts them that I can't pay while I'm in a coma, so I need to make a plan so that someone would have that information available.

If you are the bill paying person in your relationship, it would be a good idea that your partner at least knows what you do so that if you were unable, they could step in until you were able to again.

Take the next month and note when you pay your bills, and how you pay them. Think about who you trust to give them access to this information. A good idea would be if you are not in a committed relationship with the person to just give them access to where the information would be if the need arose, instead of straight out giving them access.