The New Year’s first days – and weeks – traditionally pique the challenging urge to create a list of well-intentioned resolutions. For many people this is a briefly uplifting but ultimately doomed effort. It seems natural for humans to pine for ambitious, scribbled columns of what turn out to be miracles.
Example: Every day I begin with a “To-Do List” of 12 to 15 tasks; of these, I usually accomplish between eight and ten. I am lucky to now be wise enough to put the most important tasks first – still, an average of eight out of 15 is pretty shabby.
But some recent events – and memories they have stirred – prompted a new species of discipline and resolution.
My wife and I have lived on the north shore of Lake Chapala for four decades, engaging in a number of enterprises, including journalism, newspaper publishing and real estate. And this unfortunately provided an over abundance of instructive lessons concerning the daunting challenge of dying in Mexico with an unperturbed soul concerning the outside chance of leaving one’s personal affairs behind in anything resembling an orderly state.
Consider coolly the following list of practical requirements. That they are shorn even a glance of dealing with grief and grieving; with remembrance of good and tough times; with things we wish we had said if only we had known, should alert you to the fact that they deal with legal matters and practical steps that may protect your heirs from error while trying to preserve your last wishes.
1) First of all don’t die at home, unless there is a physician present. If you do, the “authorities” will seal your home and wait for certified next of kin to claim the body and possessions. This is a dicey deal.Long experiences have revealed that many possessions go astray between the time the police are notified of a death and the arrival of a consular officer to take statuary responsibility for the personal estate of a foreign citizen who dies in Mexico having no appointed legal representative in country.
For tourists and short-term visitors, often this does not spell disaster. For long-term visitors or residents, it can. To avoid this, there are a number of steps [resolutions], you can take now to make the path easier.
2) You need to have registered someone (with telephone, address, email) as your beneficiary on any Mexican bank accounts, and on investment accounts at any Mexican financial institutions.
3) You should have a Mexican will covering all property and financial matters in Mexico. This must be written in Spanish, this statement in any foreign language [i.e. English] is invalid. But if you don’t understand Spanish, have the Spanish-language will translated into your native tongue. All this has to be notarized by a Mexican notary.
4) A letter of intent, in both languages, should be attached to the will.
a. This letter of intent, signed and witnessed, should indicate how your property is to be dispersed. Being dead, you won’t care, but before you take your leave, you may. And without a letter of intent your relatives may fall into controversy and bitterness concerning the personal possessions, valuables and property you leave behind.
b. Membership in organization[s] that can be contacted to oversee burial/cremation.
5) If you rent, you should have all rental, electrical contracts and payment receipts gathered in a logical place in your home/apartment. This should include all contracts and payments to employees [i.e. gardeners, maids, cooks, care givers].
(This is the first of a two-part series.)