Some probably think I should have done this earlier....

It's always easy to second guess the timing of planning, but the only really bad timing is to have done no planning at all.

...I'm trying to write up notes about what to do when I'm gone.

I suggest you include in those notes your passwords and accesses to your various investing and bank accounts, and if you pay your bills online, instructions on who the payees are, those passwords, and how to execute those payments. This would be useful whether you pay through your bank, or you pay your payees directly through their online facilities.

Your notes also might include the locations of important papers--birth certificates, marriage certificates--and what agencies are going to require copies of death certificates along with marriage in order to change over ownership of accounts in your name or your joint names.

Eric Hines