Preparing for Someday – Information PART 2

The Information in Your Brain

This is part two of the “tell your family about the information stored in your brain. As I said in the first part, a useful way to think about this is to prepare an “If Something Happens to Me” file. The questions you family will ask include “where” (documents, keys, accounts), “what” (assets, liabilities, online accounts, subscriptions, insurance policies), and “who” (lawyer, personal representatives, financial advisor). Your family should be able to find information quickly and understand what you own, what you owe, what you have arranged, and who needs to be contacted.

There are at least twelve things you should share. I already covered estate and legal documents, investments and financial account information, and liabilities and obligations. In this post I cover insurance, Social Security, valuable property like real estate and vehicles along with personal belongings. Remember that wills and trusts can help reduce confusion.

In a future post I will cover our digital lives, tax information, financial relationships, recurring financial activity and your “wishes.”

1. Insurance

List every policy you have. We have homeowners insurance, auto insurance, and an umbrella liability insurance policy. Cindie is co-owner with her brother of the 2015 Ford Escape that she uses to take her brother to medical appointments and to church services. Therefore, we also have auto coverage for that vehicle.

Life insurance (if any) – we don’t have life insurance.
Long-term-care insurance (In general I am not a big fan of this type of insurance.)
Health insurance (Medicare information and supplemental coverage provider.)
Homeowners/renters insurance
Automobile insurance
Umbrella liability insurance
Other policies

For each, identify the company, policy number, agent, coverage, beneficiaries, and where the policy is located.

2. Social Security and pensions

Your family should know:

Social Security status and expected benefit. Both Cindie and I are already receiving Social Security, so our personal representative will have to notify Social Security when we die.
Pension information: we don’t have any pensions.
Former employers with retirement benefits. This doesn’t apply to our situation.
Contact information for pension administrators
Any survivor benefits that may be available. This won’t matter in our case.

3. Real estate and valuable property

Document the following resources you own. In our case, we have a family trust, so it is best to title valuable property in the trust. For example, our 2020 Ford Escape is in the trust so that it doesn’t have to go through probate. Our home is also in the trust. It should be noted that our original trust was replaced with a new one, and our attorney did the required paperwork to change the title on our home in Fitchburg when the new trust was written.

You should document your primary residence, vacation homes, rental properties, land, vehicles, boats, jewelry, collectibles, antiques, firearms, valuable artwork and safe-deposit boxes.

We do have some of these items, but none of them is of significant value. Our son or son-in-law might want some of my workshop tools or a couple of firearms.

4. Personal belongings

This is often overlooked. Tell your family about possessions that have sentimental or financial significance.

Consider making a simple inventory with:

Item
Location
Approximate value
Intended recipient
Special instructions

Photographs can be extremely helpful. In my case I want my wife, followed by my children to determine how the personal belongings will be divided. This information is included in Article 2 “Specific Bequests” of my “Last Will and Testament.” I know my marble collection may not be of interest to them, but perhaps one of our grandchildren would enjoy having the marble table and marbles. I just don’t want anyone to think my “treasures” should be their treasures. Some people don’t like clutter!