Educating Banking Clients on the Benefits of End-of-Life Preparation

Generally speaking, most people don’t want to think about death. While that shouldn’t come as a surprise, you may not have realized just how much this tendency has impacted people’s life-planning efforts. Even with COVID-19 bringing the issue home tragically and painfully in 2020 and beyond, the number of Americans who have taken the basic step of putting together a last will actually declined by 6% between 2023 and 2024. 

Starting the end-of-life planning process can be difficult, but putting this work off indefinitely isn’t good for banks or their customers. Of course, most people don’t have experience writing wills and completing other steps in this planning process. That’s where your financial institution comes in. By helping your customers take these steps to prepare their assets and plan for the future with their loved ones, they can enjoy the peace of mind, closeness, and prosperity that these activities bring. Meanwhile, you’ll be in a position to participate in valuable banking activities that benefit everyone and solidify your business’s future. 

Why Should Your Clients Handle End-of-Life Planning Today?

If your clients go through the end-of-life planning process today (instead of waiting for years or even decades), they’ll be able to:

Make the Most of Their Plans

When creating a last will, advanced directive, and other documents, people need to make a number of crucial decisions. There are many reasons why advancing age can make these choices more difficult, and every year that passes means less time for assets like trust funds to mature. 

If a person completes these end-of-life planning milestones at a relatively young age, they’ll have little to no trouble making those choices with plenty of time to amend them later. Also, if your bank offers intuitive digital platforms and services that customers can engage with easily, they’ll be able to add documents, upload personal content, and update their wishes as they go along. It encourages your banking customers to make end-of-life planning a process—not an event—that naturally brings family members into the conversation.  

Make Their Own Decisions

Even if they don’t have a large estate, most people want to leave a financial legacy to their loved ones after they die. But if a person passes away before creating a last will, they’ll miss their chance to decide how their assets will be distributed. That can open the door to courts stepping in and making choices that water down their intentions and legacy.

Creating a last will is just the beginning of the end-of-life planning process. If one of your customers dies before deciding what should happen at their funeral or how family heirlooms, photos and videos, or online accounts and social media will be accessed and distributed, their family members will be responsible for making these decisions. This can lead to conflict and expenses that don’t benefit anyone. 

Choose How to Spend Their Last Days 

As your clients work their way through the end-of-life planning process, they can also consider creating an advanced directive (or “living will”). These documents deal in part with what should happen in the immediate aftermath of a person’s death, but they can also contain instructions on how they would like to spend their final days.

To that end, advanced directives include vital information on a person’s health-related decisions. This document will tell their medical providers and loved ones where they want to be at this time and whether or not they want to be resuscitated, receive palliative care/hospice, or use life-sustaining treatment.

Have (and Share) Peace of Mind

There’s no getting around the fact that end-of-life planning can be emotional, but making these plans ahead of time can be a surprising source of comfort. Once people have completed this process, they’ll know they’ve done everything they could to plan ahead—and that things will go as smoothly as possible for their beneficiaries.

At the same time, it’s a good idea for people to communicate with close friends and family about their will and other life-planning steps they’ve taken. If people know that a loved one has created one of these plans, they’ll have much less pressure on high-stakes decisions when the time comes. It’s also a good opportunity to open broader conversations about collective family plans and goals, and your bank can help them explore how to achieve them with the services you provide.

Prepare With Family, Not Just For Family

Though it isn’t as obvious as some of the benefits discussed here, end-of-life planning gives people an opportunity to get their possessions, thoughts, and documents organized so they can enjoy their memories and mementos in the present, too. Then, they can store all of this information in a secure digital vault, preventing them from losing track of it in the future. It also creates a space to curate and add to their digital legacy at their convenience as well as a chance to invite family members to enjoy and contribute. 

How This Process Benefits Banks

Of course, your clients aren’t the only ones who should prioritize end-of-life planning. When your bank explains the advantages listed above to its customers and works closely with them to establish an end-of-life plan, you’ll benefit from perks like:

• Enhanced relationships with customers. By supporting your clients while they make big decisions about their last days and beyond, you’ll form a stronger emotional connection than you ever had before.
• An increase in business. Customers with personal ties to your bank will be much more likely to choose you for any financial services they need—and that translates to increased investments and non-interest income. Family members will also have solid reasons to stick with your business and explore other important financial services like mortgages and loans. 
• A more competitive service lineup. Since many banks don’t provide more than the bare minimum when it comes to end-of-life planning support, taking this process seriously is an excellent way to attract new customers.

Follow These End-of-Life Planning Steps

Now that you understand how preparation can help you and your customers, it’s time to take a closer look at what this work involves. As your clients go through the end-of-life planning process, you’ll want to be there to help them:

Create an Advanced Directive

You already know why your customers need advanced directives—these documents cover essential health decisions during a person’s final days. Still, that isn’t the only information found in a living will.

Along with that, advanced directives explain who will be responsible for taking care of a person’s bills and attending to their estate in their absence. They also dictate what should happen to a person’s remains when they die.

Put Together Funeral Plans

When people make their own funeral preparations, they’ll ensure this event goes exactly the way they want—and eliminate a significant source of stress for their loved ones in the process. With that in mind, your customers should take some time to think about their funeral’s:

• Music
• Guests
• Format
• Decorations
• Locations
• Pallbearers
• Burial or cremation expenses

Write a Last Will

A last will is what most people think of when they hear the word “will.” These documents clarify what will happen to a person’s belongings after they die, and they’re a must-have for everyone—not just the rich.

A comprehensive last will should cover a person’s:

• Estate (including both their assets and their debts)
• Plans for distributing assets
• Beneficiaries
• Executors

Prepare an Ethical Will

Ethical wills aren’t legal documents, but they’re still a crucial part of the end-of-life planning process. These documents allow people to go beyond estate planning and share last wishes and other personal messages with the people they care about.

If your customers are wondering what to include in their ethical will, they should know that people often use them to voice their:

• Beliefs
• Personal messages
• Stories
• Apologies
• Confessions
• Advice
• Regrets

Get Loved Ones Involved

Once they’ve completed these steps, there’s one more thing your customers need to do—talk to their friends and family members about their end-of-life plan. This conversation won’t just give them a chance to clearly and calmly explain their decisions; it will also serve as an opportunity to alleviate their loved ones’ concerns and share valuable information about assets they will need to prepare to manage.

Finally, these conversations open the door to long-range financial planning opportunities many clients have never considered. Multigenerational wealth building is about developing financial literacy and shaping a plan with well-understood benefits and goals. While these services are about an ending, they’re also about new financial beginnings, and your bank can help shape that trajectory so everyone can benefit. 

Offer End-of-Life Planning Services With Help From The Postage

When your financial institution can help clients create last wills and complete other vital end-of-life planning steps, they can make essential decisions while being of sound mind, reduce future stress on their loved ones, and benefit in many other ways. Meanwhile, your bank will enjoy stronger emotional ties with its customers and higher levels of activity when it participates in this process.

However, there’s one catch: most banks don’t offer comprehensive end-of-life planning support. If that’s the case for your bank, you may be wondering how you can introduce these services. Fortunately, The Postage specializes in helping financial institutions like yours take care of will creation, memory/message sharing, and document storage for their customers.

On average, banks that work with us see a 300%+ increase in ROI just months after they start offering services powered by our comprehensive end-of-life planning platform. If you’re ready to enjoy benefits like these, set up a demo of our platform today!