The hardest part about estate planning is getting around to doing it. The second hardest part is deciding on an executor – a person you appoint to execute instructions as stipulated in your will.
It is a given that the right executor is someone you know and trust but he or she must also be organized enough to be able to navigate the financial and legal affairs associated with your will.
But being an executor is also a lot of work because depending upon how complex your estate is, settling it could take some work.
But you can help cut down the biggest pain of an executor’s task by doing one simple thing – helping him or her easily locate the documents associated with your estate.
We have this bolted down water-proof, fire-proof safe in our home that we use to preserve important documents along with digital copies of statements of all the accounts we own and we owe on.
And because some of these require frequent updates, we use a safe at home instead of one at a bank because if we had to drive down to a bank to update those documents, it would never get done. Our executor has access to that safe if need be.
But since most of the documentation about your family’s financial affairs also reside at my firm, this inventory taking of your assets might not be as big of a deal for you but I would still do it.
A list of documents you should think about gathering…
- Bank and brokerage statements
- Credit card statements
- Social Security records
- Birth and marriage certificates
- Passports
- Insurance policies (life, home, health)
- Deeds to real estate
- Vehicle titles
- 3 years of tax returns
- Will and trust documents
Besides these, we also store in that safe copies of all our personal memorabilia like pictures, old videos etc…anything we do not want to be lost if and when a disaster strikes.
Also, update your beneficiary designations across your accounts. That will make your executor’s job a lot easier.
So that’s some housekeeping chores in case you haven’t gotten around to doing it.
Thank you for your time.
Cover image credit – Flickr