Get an estimate of the timeline with your healthcare providers to help determine what and how urgent these planning measures should be. If you have already started, determine what remaining tasks you need to finish, including a will or living trust, power of attorney, healthcare proxy, and/or advanced directives. If you haven’t started, consider seeking an estate planner as soon as possible to complete the process before your death.
Make a list of and organize all of these
Assets
- Personal property
- Bank accounts
- Safe deposit boxes
- Investments
- Stocks and bonds
- Real estate
- Retirement accounts
- IRAs
- Profit-sharing plans
- Loans to family members
- Life insurance
- Annuities
Liabilities
- Loans
- Credit card debt
- Leased cars
- Mortgages
- Current monthly bills
- Estimated tax payments due
- Your will
- Legal power of attorney
- Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form *
- Life insurance plans
- Income tax returns
- Latest bank and investment account statements
- Payment books
- Leases
- Mortgages
*name may vary by state
Store all financial information and documents in a safe place, which could include a password-protected file, and make sure your heirs know how to access them. There may be software alternatives.
It is also important to provide passwords and usernames for all your active websites, so that:
- any person with Power of Attorney can access and manage these sites;
- an heir can access them after your death without losing valuable data, such as important documents and pictures; and
- email, online shopping, multimedia, and subscriptions can be easily cancelled before they can be used for identity theft.
Consider using a third-party password manager like LastPass, KeePass, and DashLane.
It may also be more efficient if you include your partner or children as joint owner on any account that regularly bills for services, such as your cable, internet, cell phone, club memberships, and utilities.