Sorry for the gloomy topic. If you passed on today, would your customers be serviced tomorrow? What elements need to be a part of any written plan? Thoughts?

Not a problem here Dave. I'm just a partner. They're probably waiting for me to croak.

List of suppliers
Advertiser contracts
Secondary person to sign checks
List of contractors (accountants, bankers, attorneys....)
Operating procedures
Calander of activities (tax filings, annual training, advertising deadlines, seasonal activities, customer communications)

What else?

I assume that it would be the same as what's needed to sell a business.
Financial statements
Corporate Tax Returns
A list of assets
Copies of any copyrights, contracts etc.
Schedule of all indebtedness of the business
Legal description of any real estate included
Copies of insurance policies
Accounts receivable aging reports
Up to date inventory information
List of any ongoing contracts for services to be assumed
Marketing brochures, ads, articles
Any pension/retirement/401k.
Any employment contracts, rep agreements, etc.

PASSWORDS. This topic came up recently. I was told by an employee of a very large corporation with various divisions ($750 million +) about the passing of the owner and founder. Apparently, they discovered that he had over 100 passwords/identities that he conducted business with. Of course these were not readily available after his passing and his wife had to hire experts to recover this info.

Maybe this topic will get me going on revising my will. There have been several stories in our paper lately of people having to fight for what should be theirs because of people who are not relatives, trying to screw up the will.

Talking to a good attorney is a very intelligent thing to do, even for you younger guys. It doesn't seem important to you now, but if anything happens, your wife and family could really appreciate a smooth transition.

As far as me personally, so far we have seven grandchildren that we didn't have when the will was created. Now we've got to think about college education for them! Dave is right in one respect, this might be a morbid subject to many of you, but since all of us share one belief, that death is inevitable, let's make it as pleasant as possible for those who will miss us.