Thinking Ahead
History is rife with people who left us before their time. For example, our long-term family accountant died in his sleep 3 days before Tax Day. While he had an executed will, he did not tell the family where his list of passwords was. There is also a long list of famous people who died without a will. In short, it pays to be at prepared. Help your parents prepare by helping them execute a will and fill in an Instruction letter.
No one wants to talk about end of life issues, but it is a fact that information is easy to access and collect only at certain points in time, like when it is happening, or when your parents are able to discuss it. After that it becomes much more time consuming and expensive to collect that same information.
For Administrators, executors and senior family members anytime is a good time to start a file that includes both documents above and the items below. Wzee has designed a format to collect and store this information and can be access via a low monthly subscription.
Alternatively one could also start a physical file to collect and hold copies of these documents.
Documents and Data to Collect
- Birth/Wedding/Death Certificates
- Government picture ID’s
- Family, friend, professional contact information
- Social Security Number, credit cards, Health and Medical cards
- Safe Deposit box location and keys, lock box, safe
- Location of keys, combinations, passwords
- Property deeds, vehicle registrations, titles
- Prepaid assets: cemetery plots, time shares, personal loans
- Outstanding debts, especially those secured by assets
- Tax and financial records
- The owners’ “personal box” or files, whether physical or digital
Important Note:
It is important to know where these items are located. Make a definitive list of the location where these documents are and make a copy of all documents and images. A Wzee subscription includes free secure digital document storage (up to 2 gb) where a pre-formatted sheet is available to store this information along with legal documents, financial spreadsheets and accounting sheets which can be easily accessed by any members of your team with proper credentials.