Ready, Set, Organize - Part 2

TODAY is money AND passwords. WHY, you might wonder, do they go together? Because, let;'s face it, you can't get to one without the other.

Let's start with money. Where are your accounts? How many do you have? Do you have a financial planner? Do you have separate brokerage or IRA accounts? Does the family know about them? Are they joint accounts? Is someone a signer? Who are the beneficiaries?

Beneficiary designation supersedes your will. This little tidbit is stupidly important. You may want your monies to be split evenly amongst your heirs. However, if someone is the beneficiary, they get it all. Too bad, so sad for the others. This is something you want to check into on ALL your accounts. Make this priority one on your to-do list.

Are your accounts joint accounts? Great. Whomever is on the account with you will still have access to the money. Now it is a single account - either join someone in on it, or check the beneficiary status. (In my case my accounts are joint with Marco. But not all of them.)

Is someone a signer on your accounts. This is all well and good, yet, the rub here is when you die, they lose the ability to sign into the accounts as the Social Security office will notify the bank and shut everything down. (This is like magic and happens very quickly.) If you have a relationship with the bankers there, you can usually work things out until the will goes into probate - and depending on where you live this can take a bit of time.

Debit card PIN - someone needs that.
Online banking info - someone needs that.

Your financial planner will have whatever you have invested with them at their fingertips. If you have joint accounts, make sure you at least know the person who is handling your accounts and how to get in touch with them.

Whoever is next in line to your financials will need ALL of this information. Don't make people guess. Or check your states unclaimed money directory.

From my friend, Carol, in the comments on my last post on FB:
"Make sure the beneficiaries for all of the investments or accounts not in your trust are easily identifiable...preferably written down or printed out with your most recent year end statement. ESPECIALLY if it is an online bank or Treasury account that may not have a live person to call about that information."

In the case of my mom, I had access to everything ahead of time and once we got the Death Certificate*, it was very easy to get into the accounts and get the beneficiaries their money.

*DEATH CERTIFICATE FYI:
I would suggest at least six "official" death certificates with the seal. A lot of online places will take a PDF. You can get them with and without the cause of death. No one except you needs to know the cause of death.

Automatic payments, the greatest thing in the world. Until someone dies. Make up a list of what you have automatically taken from you bank accounts AND your credit cards. In this house it's a LONG list. Check on subscriptions on Amazon. (Kindle, auto shipments of stuff, BritBox, etc.) STOP them all. All the TV apps. The music apps. News apps. The newspaper and the corresponding newspaper app. They don't care that someone is dead. They're going to keep taking the money. Scan in a death certificate and have it ready to email to whomever you need to.

Credit cards. How many do you have? How many do you frequently use? These are probably two very different numbers. Your estate is responsible for paying off the debts of your cards providing there is money to do so. Not everyone will have this. I suggest having a "family card" so that your caregivers can get you what you need without dipping into their own money. (Unless they're millionaires, in which case, they can pay.) If you have store cards, see if they are automatically withdrawn. These make it easier on the executor to know what to stop ASAP.

PASSWORDS are the bane of all of our existence and two-step authentication makes it even more cumbersome. My mom had a  book I am one hundred percent certain she bought on Amazon that had all the passwords for everything in it handwritten. (I just searched Amazon - there are too many to count.) My aunt had an alphabetical typed out document. Ninety percent of mine are saved on my laptop or in my phone - which then requires face recognition. Technology is great until it is a hindrance. Figure out what will work best for you and your family and make sure everyone is on board.

This is also a most excellent time to unsubscribe to the eight million things we all click yes to to save 25% on our first purchase. And, all the stuff we get because we donated to a fundraiser. There is an amazing service called Unroll.Me that I have used for 13 years that makes condensing all these types of email AND unsubscribing VERY, very easy. Yes, you need to give it your email address and password, but you get one daily digest (you choose the time) with ALL of the emails and it creates a folder in your email account so when you're looking for a particular brands coupon it is right there at your fingertips.

Some thoughts: There is a tremendous book: I'm Dead, Now What? (There are many iterations of this type of book out there.) My friend Carolyn suggested it to me when I was with my mom. I have it and still haven't filled it out. I have not done a majority of what I am suggesting here, let's not be too terribly surprised at this. My aunt took the book and made it into a document with everything gorgeously separated. She was an attorney who enjoyed lots of order. It definitely made life easier.

My goal is to slowly get to this stuff and I will do like Nancy and create a document and mail it to my cherubs so they're in the know. Also, and I think this is of paramount importance, if you have everything on your computer, make sure the file is easily found. It doesn't do anyone any good if they can't get to this very important stuff.

We all have different lived experiences, so feel free to add your thoughts to this or any other piece I write.
xoxo