Charles Brophy
Recognizing the importance of organizing your estate is one of the most significant steps you can take in alleviating emotional stress and financial burden for your family. With your wishes safely recorded, peace of mind is available for all.
What more can you do to show how much you care? Gathering and organizing your core estate documents will ensure your loved ones easily find answers to important questions such as:
• Who should be contacted in the event of an emergency?
• What are your final wishes and with whom have you pre-arranged your funeral?
• Where is your safety deposit box key and at which branch of what bank is the box located?
Most people carry this information in their heads, but they never take the time to organize it in a concise, easily accessible manner. Considering that tragedy can strike at any time, this is not a prudent practice.
Interestingly (and ironically), there is a direct correlation between how well one prepares for life’s challenges and how quickly and easily one recovers when these challenges present themselves.
Most people will admit that getting started on organizing their estate is generally why they fail to get it done. How do they pull all the information together and exactly what is the information they should be pulling together in the first place?
In a nutshell, it is the following:
• Information about your funeral, will, powers of attorney and any trusts you may have set up
• Legal certificates
• Banking, credit card and investment information
• Pension, insurance and real estate information
• Details and wishes about personal property
• Family, friend and business information
Once this information has been gathered and organized, it needs to be filed for safekeeping so that it is kept neat, accessible and secure at all times. Keep in mind that costly losses and unnecessary delays can result from poor record keeping. Stocks, bonds, bank accounts, real estate and insurance benefits can go unclaimed and critical deadlines can be missed when important documents are not on hand.
Estate organization also affords you the opportunity to reflect upon the people and times that have meant the most to you in life, and to record these thoughts in the privacy of your own journal as part of the legacy you leave your loved ones. It will probably become the most important thing you will leave those you love.
Your financial advisor can help you organize your estate, not only by providing assistance with your future financial needs but by guiding you in the many areas that will bring your family peace of mind when the time comes for them to handle your estate.
___________
This is an extract of an article which originally appeared in the Planned Giving Office’s newsletter Heritage. Charles Brophy is a financial adviser with Brophy Financial Planning.
The Office of Planned Giving and the Human Resources Service are working together to provide a series of seminars for faculty and staff as part of the Planning for Retirement program. The next workshops will take place on:
May 27 – “Estate Planning” – Allison White – presented in French (time to be confirmed)
May 30 – “Estate Planning” – Linda Hancock – presented in English (1 – 2 p.m.)
