Nobrakes, Sorry for your loss.
Everyone else, Replacing the IMS bearing is a good idea as is doing all the other regular maintenance. Replacing the IMSB should never be thought of as making your M96 engine 'bullet proof'. M96 (and any other) engines can fail for a lot of reasons. I don't see anything pointing to IMS failure on this particular engine. Might be, might not be. The '01 engine I tore down was full of metal and seems to have failed (initially) from a broken rod bolt. The original IMS bearing looked good at 124k miles.
I have learned a lot from Tom and agree with his assessment in the
post above, except that I don't see failure in
most street cars as inevitable as his racing engines.
http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/56600-m96-engine-failure-mode-list.html
A little marketing From Flat6Innovations:
Lastly, I would not recommend that anyone rely on a 15+ year old sports car as their only transportation or buy one at all if they
have to finance it.