No one wants to think about losing a loved one, and it can be a very difficult time. One way to make it a little easier is to be as organized as possible. I’m going to run through a few things that you should take inventory of.
Your Estate Plan
- Location of your original estate documents
- Contact information of your estate planning attorney
Employment and Membership Info
- Employer’s contact information
- Memberships, organizations or nonprofit information that you are a part of
Insurance Policies, Investment & Bank Accounts, Pension and Social Security Information
- Insurance company’s contact information
- Beneficiary information
- Benefit amount
- Account numbers
Automatic Payments, Credit Cards, Passwords and Safe Deposit Boxes
- Contact and account information for any automatic payments you have coming out of your account (so you can stop those payments)
- Open credit cards and who to contact to close them
- (This is a big one) Where your passwords might be located. They don’t necessarily have to be in this document, but with security being as tight as it is nowadays, it could be very hard to get into a vital account that you might need to access.
- The location of a safe deposit box, who is an authorized user, the box number
Other Professionals and Taxes
- Other professionals, including: Accountant, financial advisor and estate planning attorney – they all need to coordinate together to finalize the estate.
- The location of your tax records to file a final tax record
Property Information
- Location of the deed and the mortgage
- Mortgage company contact information
- Any vehicles you own and corresponding loan documents
Need more information about estate planning? See my posts on estate planning 101 and what you need to do after setting up a trust.
About Michael
Do you need help preparing for retirement? Contact me today to set up a meeting to talk about your goals. You can also download my free ebook for physicians for tips and information about getting your finances on track.