Get organized! A super simple estate planning tip

Before you click away because you have 100 other more urgent things to do, let me tell you why it is one of the best ways to help protect your estate – and it’s completely free!

Getting organized allows you figure out what you have

How many times have you looked for something in your home and you know you own it, but you can’t find it? In my house we’re always looking for scissors, tape measures, and the checkbook.  Inexcusable, I know.

Most of us are intimately acquainted with our financial assets and debts because we deal with them regularly when we get paid and when we pay bills. 

It might seem silly, but when was the last time you sat down and took stock of EVERYTHING you own and owe?  I would bet that you’re mostly concerned with your recurring expenses and don’t think much beyond that.  And that’s normal!  We’re all counting on being around next month for the next wave of bill pay.

Taking time say, every quarter or maybe once or twice a year to lay everything out on the table is useful for many reasons.  It allows you to make long-term financial goals and decisions and see if you’re still on track to do what you want.  But doing this also allows you to see any holes that are harder to spot when you’re not looking at the big picture.

For example, you may realize that your insurance coverage needs to be updated.  Maybe you have too much or too little insurance on your home?  Or perhaps you find a bill that got lost and needs paid.  You can use this as an opportunity to make sure your beneficiary designations are up to date, too, and consolidate or close unnecessary accounts.

It costs you nothing to simply make a list of all the bank accounts you have.  It doesn’t need to be terribly detailed – just knowing who owns what accounts at which banks goes a long way. 

Getting organized assures your loved ones won’t have to hunt for your stuff

One of the biggest reasons to get organized, even if you don’t care if you yourself are inconvenienced, is for the sake of your loved ones. 

Think about your banking accounts right now.  Think of how you pay your bills.  Who do you have in your life that knows where your accounts are?  How difficult it would be for them to figure out how to pay bills for you?

Perhaps one spouse in your marriage handles the finances exclusively, or maybe you each have your own accounts.  If something happened to one of you, are the bills set to auto-pay?  Do you each have the ability to access all the accounts necessary to keep the household running?  If you do your banking online, can your spouse see and act on all your accounts?

If you have someone do your taxes or if you have a financial advisor, do your loved ones know who those people are?  If they need your Healthcare or Durable Power of Attorney, would they be able to find those if they’re rushing off to the hospital to see you?

Or – and this is a worse proposition – if you pass, is everyone going to be able to locate what you own?  If you purchased a condo in Florida or you have a boat in storage or you decide to open a dozen more bank or brokerage accounts, is anyone going to know you did that? 

I don’t mean to interrogate, but these are important questions to consider not just to make sure you are cared for and your wishes are honored, but to make it is as easy as possible for the people who may have to take care of you and your estate.  If you add the need to probate to the mix, that is a terrible combination to have to deal with on top of grieving. 

Why are you nagging me to store my will so carefully???

But here’s the big one.  If you work with me, you will find that I go through this at least twice during the course of representation.

You have a couple of options for storing your original, inked estate planning documents (Will, Powers of Attorney, Living Will, Trust, etc.).  It generally boils down to two: you can either keep your own documents, or you can leave them with your attorney. 

Now, before I jump into each of these options, I want to note that you can deposit some of your estate planning documents with your Probate Court, usually for a modest fee.  There may be circumstances where that makes sense.  I’m not going to address that option here because it really depends on the circumstances.   

If you store your documents with an attorney, they will safeguard them for you.  But it may be inconvenient because if you need the documents in a pinch, you must wait until the attorney or their staff is in the office to go pick them up.

Having the documents at home is obviously more convenient, because they’re near at hand in emergencies. You can decide how securely you wish to store them, so if you want to assure they are safe from fire or water damage – or perhaps prying eyes! – you can buy your own safe. 

And if you’re not willing to buy a safe, please, please consider bank safety deposit boxes carefully!  They may be more secure, but they have the same inconvenience of only being available for pick up during banking hours.  And if you lose the key you have to wait even longer, because you’ll probably need a Probate Court order to drill the box.  Lesson: if you store your documents in a safety deposit box, do NOT lose the key, and make sure someone knows how to locate the key – and the box.

But in my mind, even more important than my safety deposit box spiel, is this:

What do you think happens if a will can’t be located?

Imagine that someone you love has passed away.  Everyone knows this person made a will, but no one has any idea where it is.  They go to their house (if they have access to it) and go through the filing cabinets and other paperwork but can’t seem to find it. 

You will then need to go through probate.  You would have to prove the will existed, that it was executed as required by Ohio law, and what it said.  This is not easy, and it’s especially difficult when there is someone opposing this will, saying the reason it can’t be found is because the person who passed away decided to revoke their will.

In an ideal world, you would write your estate plan, check it every few years, and either store it with your attorney or in a nice safe in your home.  You’d include an updated inventory of everything you own with your estate documents.  Everyone who needs to know about your plan either has a copy of everything or knows where to find it, even the people you decided to disinherit.  You never make any radical alterations to your documents, and when the time comes, your estate passes easily and outside of probate because you made a good plan and you made sure your assets were titled to dovetail with that plan.

The Takeaway

Of course, we do not live in an ideal world.

We acquire things and forget about them.  We make plans but never actually do the thing – we misplace stuff.  We keep secrets.  And we sometimes can’t confront people who perhaps ought to be confronted.  That is life.

I know not everyone is going to go out and get a plan in place and keep it in perfect order.  That’s why simple organization is so appealing.  Even if you neglect all else, just having one place where people can go to figure out these important details of your life would be so helpful.