Estate Planning: Getting My Affairs in Order

The time and effort I put into arranging the items that I will eventually bequeath to my family is not so much for me (although it does provide some peace of mind) but for those I leave behind. I take comfort in knowing that the day I pass along, I won't be leaving a jumbling mess of questions and concerns for my family, but rather an organized and orderly estate plan that will make the process of dealing with my affairs as simple as possible for them.

While having such a plan is important, and things such as a will, executor, and burial arrangements are certainly pertinent aspects of this plan, there are other things that people sometimes overlook when they are making their preparations. I've tried to include in my personal plan, an all-encompassing guide that will help my family sift through my leftovers.

Here are a few of the most important things (at least in my mind) that I have done to assist my family in the process they will be involved in upon my demise.

Asset Guide

Wills are important, there's no doubt about it, but when I'm dead and gone, it may not be easy for those left behind to know where certain things are located, even if I've specifically named them in my will. This is why an asset guide can be instrumental to the efficient location and determination of assets that have been left behind.

Whether written by hand, typed, put on a zip drive or left with a bit of a personal touch on video, asset guides can provide information such as phone numbers, account numbers, amounts, addresses, and key contacts for the obtaining or locating of certain assets. Such a document can be very helpful for finding and determining amounts for insurance policies, bank accounts, retirement accounts, annuities, certificates of deposit, bonds, safe deposit boxes, and similar items.

In my case, I've left both a video record as well as a zip drive of such information for my wife (or mother should my wife and I both go at the same time) in a safe deposit box that both parties know the location of, as well as the location of the keys. You might be as surprised as I was to discover just how many loose ends there can be to tie up when you start putting all your pertinent financial information together for someone else.

Reminders

If you're anything like me, there are plenty of things that you keep track of that your spouse or partner is probably content to let you handle. This works out well for me and my wife since I'm the organization freak and she is happy to let my neurotic tendencies work overtime nitpicking the details of our finances and household affairs. However, once I'm gone, there are going to be certain things she needs to be aware of in addition to the information that I provide her on the asset guide.

Antiques that she may not know are valuable, when certain bills are due, certain debts that are outstanding, where the deed for the house and titles for the cars are, where our family social security cards and birth certificates are kept, and phone numbers or email addresses for certain relatives or friends that might need to be contacted after I pass are some of the items I have listed on my "don't forget" list for when I'm gone.

It's not that my wife wouldn't or couldn't get by without this information, but again, it just makes things a little bit easier in a time during which she might be left with her head spinning. There are a lot of things to take care of after someone passes away, and everything I can do to make the transition easier makes me feel just a little bit better.

Updates

It's not going to do my little lady much good if I leave her with a bunch of old and outdated information. Therefore, I make my best effort at keeping the details of our financial situation up to date on a regular basis. I typically update monthly the basic information that I keep at home such as spreadsheets, bills, and similar items. For the items that take a bit more work like my asset guide and reminder list, I try to update yearly or whenever significant financial changes occur in our life. This way my instructions won't be misleading or confusion due to being so old that they are no longer relevant to our financial situation.

More from this contributor:
Protecting Your Personal Finances: Securing Paper Documents
Single Couples' Estate Planning
Security Tips for Your Personal Finances: Computer Protection

Disclaimer: The author is not a licensed financial professional or estate planner. The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For financial advice, readers should consult a licensed financial advisor. Any action taken by the reader due to the information provided in this article is solely at the reader's discretion.