subject: Organizing Your Financial Records! [print this page] Organizing your financial records can be a real hassle and let's face it who has the time to stay on top of all of that stuff anyway. Between running errands, paying bills, going to your doctor and dentist appointments and so on who has time to worry about updating your Will or meeting with your financial advisor. But not taking a little time out to pay attention to these details can really cause some major problems for the ones you love.
Recently a dear client of mine passed away and I have been helping his children sort out the mess that he left behind. He did not intend to leave this mess and in fact he even took certain precautions that were meant to help but because he did not stay on top of these things on a regular basis settling his estate has become much more burdensome for his children than it needed to be. Let's look at some examples.
At least this client was smart enoguth to buy permanent life insurance. Had he bought only term insurance he would likely have left nothing because he would have outlived any term insurance that he had. The problem however was that he never updated his beneficiaries so his wife was listed as the primary beneficiary and she had passed away nearly 12 years ago. His children were listed on the policy in a vague way so now his children had to get a letter signed and notarized stating that they were the only children born to this marriage. They also had to get a copy of the death certificate of their Mom who had passed so long ago as well as a copy of the marriage certificate. Does this seem like alot of work to you? It was and several months have passed now and they are still working on this claim. The point is this all could have been avoided had the client updated his beneficiary form every year or so. There is no cost to do so and the clients children would have collected a check within about a week if he had this up to date. But this is just one example of what could go wrong if you don't stay on top of things and review your plans regularly, here is another one.
Another smart move this client made was that he had a Will done. And in the long run this Will is going to save his children alot of grief compared to someone that dies without one. The problem however was that the Will was witnessed by the client's Sister who has long since passed away and by her husband who moved out of state. The children now need to get a death certificate for their deceased Aunt as well as a notarized signature from their Uncle who lives far away. Can all of this be accomplished? In this case yes. But what if they were no longer on good terms with that Uncle or what if they had lost touch with this person. Again the point here is that had the Will been updated every 2 to 5 years as recommended all of these hassles and problems could have easily been avoided with just a little bit of good record keeping.
These were just a couple of examples of some messes that could have been corected with just a little effort and attention. The reality is this client actually had even more problems that had to be dealt with. If you are not meeting with your financial professional at least once per year and acting on his/her recommendations then might it be possible that you are setting your family up for the same kinds of easily avoidable problems? Why not make sure your financial world is up to date and in order. Call your financial professional today and make an appointment to do a through annual review.
