Last week I gave the eulogy at my favourite uncle’s funeral.
I stood at the front of that church and talked about who he was, the kind of man who made everyone around him feel like they mattered.
Delivering those words in a standing room only church was one of the hardest things I’ve done.
Then I came home.
And I sat down across from my husband and said, out loud:“You don’t have a sweet clue how to access the assets in my business if I died tomorrow.”
He looked at me like that wasn’t a problem.
Like I would just… always be there.
I felt physically sick.
Not because he said anything wrong exactly. But because I realized in that moment how much is sitting entirely in my head and how completely unprepared the people I love most would be without me.
I’m the one in our household who handles everything financial. Every account. Every policy. Every corporate document.
My husband prefers not to be involved, and honestly? Most days I’ve just accepted that. It’s how we work.
But sitting there after a funeral, I didn’t feel okay about it anymore.
I felt sad thinking about the administrative nightmare I could be leaving my kids with.
I felt overwhelmed because this is one more financial thing on a list that already feels too long.
And I felt something I wasn’t expecting: a little bit of anger. Not at my husband specifically. Just at the whole thing. The weight of being the one who always has to know.
Here’s what hit me hardest though:
I have a corporation. My husband isn’t a shareholder. My children aren’t shareholders. Which means if I died, they couldn’t just walk in and access what’s there.
The assets. The liabilities. Any of it. Without the right documents in place, my business — the thing I’ve spent years building — could become a legal and financial mess for the people I’m trying to protect.
And I’m a financial professional. This is what I do.
If I’m sitting here with loose ends, you probably are too.
So I did what I do when I feel overwhelmed. I made a list. I figured out where to start.
And I turned it into something you can actually use.
The Business Owner’s Estate Readiness Checklist covers what to review, what your family needs to know, and what questions to bring to your lawyer and accountant without it turning into a three-month project.
It’s not about having everything perfect. It’s about not leaving the people you love in the dark.
→ Download the checklist here
Because I know I’m not the only one who came home from something hard and realized the to-do list I’d been avoiding just got a lot more urgent.
