When Your Family Has to Step In, Will They Know Where to Start?
Important information is often scattered across filing cabinets, online accounts and someone’s memory. A little preparation today can give your loved ones the clarity and direction they may need during an unexpected emergency.
When Your Family Has to Step In, Will They Know Where to Start?
A few hours of preparation today could save the people you love months of searching, uncertainty and frustration during an already difficult time.
Important Information Is Often Scattered in More Places Than Families Realize
Insurance policies may be stored in a filing cabinet. Bank statements arrive electronically. Current Medicare documents are mixed with information from previous plans. Passwords are kept in someone’s memory—or nowhere at all.
A will may exist, but no one knows where the signed original is located or which attorney prepared it. When a parent or spouse suddenly becomes unable to manage these responsibilities, the family must begin searching for answers during an already stressful and emotional time.
The problem is rarely that information was intentionally hidden. More often, no one expected another person would need to step in so quickly.
A Family Searching for Answers
After their father suffered a serious stroke, Mark and Susan stepped in to help their mother manage the household and organize their parents’ affairs. Their parents had always handled everything independently and rarely discussed the details with their children.
Mark and Susan assumed it would take one weekend to locate the important documents, identify the accounts and organize the monthly bills. Instead, it took months.
They discovered old insurance statements in a desk but could not determine which policies were still active. Several years of Medicare documents were mixed together, making it difficult to identify their parents’ current coverage.
Their father handled most household bills online, but his computer and email account were password-protected. His phone received the security codes required to access those accounts, but no one knew the phone’s passcode.
The family eventually uncovered automatic payments coming from several bank accounts, an annuity statement from an unfamiliar company and a safe-deposit-box key with no indication of which bank it belonged to.
They spent countless hours searching through mail, calling insurance companies, contacting financial professionals and attempting to prove they had the authority to receive information. Some organizations could not speak with them until the correct legal documents were located.
Nothing had been deliberately concealed. Their parents simply never imagined that someone else might need to take over without warning.
Give Your Family a Clear Place to Begin
The Family Care & Legacy Guide helps you organize the people, documents, accounts and instructions your family may need if you become unable to manage these responsibilities yourself.
Keep Your Information Current
An outdated plan can create almost as much confusion as having no plan at all. Review your guide at least once each year and whenever you experience a significant financial, medical or personal change.
Give Your Family a Better Place to Begin
Completing this guide is about more than organizing paperwork. It is a meaningful way to care for the people who may one day need to care for you.
Your family may still face difficult decisions, but they will not have to begin by searching through drawers, guessing passwords or calling every financial institution in town. They will know where the important documents are, whom they should contact and what you want them to do.
Download the Family Care & Legacy Guide and complete one section today.
Download the Family Care & Legacy GuideThis guide is provided for general organizational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Consult the appropriate qualified professionals regarding your individual circumstances.