In keeping with the goal of making things as simple as possible for those who stay behind, we took advantage of this morning to get a bunch of things in order.
I recommend, if it hasn't been done already, creating a will. Fortunately, we did this a few years ago. Every family should take care of this, as the default inheritance is usually not the most optimal. Still, without going into detail about how inheritance works in Spain, the standard and optimal inheritance for a marriage under community property with children has some counterintuitive aspects. It's important to go through a notary and get proper advice. We took the opportunity to clear up a few doubts.
Next, I granted Carmen full power of attorney over my company. The company. In principle, we plan to keep it indefinitely. If the worst were to happen, it will become a holding company, allowing investments to be preserved even if the business no longer provides any services. With this power of attorney, Carmen will be able to fully manage the company.
Another matter was the name change on the vehicles. In our case, one of the cars was in my name, so we transferred it to hers.
We also visited some of our banks to, in some cases, simplify the number of accounts and make sure that, for the ones that remain, Carmen is listed as a co-holder. In the event of death, these matters are resolved through established protocols, but they can take time—so why not simplify things now?
The next, more laborious step is to go over each of our services and start changing the names. This includes all utilities for the house (gas, electricity, water...), taxes, and various services like Amazon, Netflix, etc.
With all this, the transition will be much less complicated.