The time is nearly upon us when many older East End residents pack up their houses and head south for the winter. To Dr. Charles Guida, a practitioner of internal medicine and gerontology since 1996, who also teaches in Stony Brook Medicine’s intern and resident program at its Southampton Hospital campus, The Star posed this question: “Is it safer to be a snowbird?”

The fellow giving out awards following the U.S. Open said tennis players live longer, as if it were settled science, and perhaps that is true — and I hope it is, for I am a tennis player — though three experts of my acquaintance with whom I spoke recently, all knowledgeable when it comes to tennis and golf, were in agreement that should you be wondering on the eve of your retirement whether to take up golf or tennis, you should take up golf, if for no other reason than it’s easier on the body.

At its most basic, estate planning doesn’t need to be overcomplicated — but that doesn’t mean it’s easy, because it’s emotional, with death and dying looming over the necessary conversations.