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Help With Personal Information Management

May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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When it comes to personal information management, it’s hard to know where to begin, especially if you’re a caregiver trying to get personal information together for an aging parent.  Luckily, there are resources that can help make the job simpler.

At the Society of Certified Senior Advisors website, you can access their Information for Life kit, which is a user-friendly series of downloadable checklists and forms for getting all of your and/or your parents’ information organized.  The kit is divided into sections dealing with personal information management areas like finances, medical advance directives, legal, and insurance, as well as end-of-life issues.  There are also sections under construction that will eventually offer resources for caregiving, and for organizing medical records and family and household information.

The forms offered also work well with your Life at Hand Organizer, as they can be printed and filed in the appropriate sections.

 

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The Importance of Including Your Pets in Your Estate Plan

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Whether you’re planning your own estate or helping your aging parents plan theirs, it’s important to make special provisions for any pets.  If you don’t, your furry friends could end up in an animal shelter.

A report by Canada’s BMO Retirement Institute was just released on April 30th, illuminating some astounding facts around Americans and their pets.  For instance, a whopping 61% of Americans are pet owners, says the report, and while 77% of Americans believe that pets should be included in estate plans, only a third have done so.

Pets are legally considered to be property, but because they are living beings requiring ongoing care, there are certain complications to consider when including pets in estate plans.  This is why there is a growing trend in estate planning toward legal documents specifically designed to address the needs of pets.

It’s not as simple as just naming in your will the person who will take over ownership of the pet.  You can do that (just make sure it’s someone you trust who agrees to the job), but this does not guarantee that the pet will actually be cared for, as that person could choose to sell or give away the animal, or simply treat it with neglect.  Another issue with pets in wills is that there is a lapse between time of death and when the will is enacted – who will care for your pet in the meantime?

There are many other issues with pets and wills, which you can read about in the article entitled Estate Planning Issues Involving Pets, by animal law expert, Rachel Hirschfeld.  Hirschfeld also helps clients set up pet trusts, which she describes as “a legally enforceable method to provide for the care, maintenance, and well being of your pet in the event of your disability or death.”  The benefit of a pet trust is that it allows you choose who will care for your pet and make provisions for funds to be dispersed to that person over a period of time to cover the pet’s care costs.

If you want to get started on planning for your pet on your own, take a look at LegalZoom’s Pet Protection Agreement.  When you visit their page, a questionnaire will guide you through the process of creating the document, which will then be mailed to you for a fee.

You can also purchase the book, All My Children Wear Fur Coats:  How to Leave a Legacy for Your Pet by Peggy R. Hoyt, JD., MBA.  According to Hoyt, this book “explores all the alternatives for planning for your pet’s future by creating a comprehensive estate plan designed specifically for your needs and the needs of your pet.”

Because estate planning for pets is still a relatively new trend, it’s a good idea to talk to a lawyer, or at least research applicable laws in your state.

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Two Crucial Ways to Prevent After-Death Identity Theft

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Remember that part in When Harry Met Sally, when Billy Crystal tells Meg Ryan that the way to find an apartment in New York is to read the obituaries?  Well, many creative criminals are capitalizing on people’s deaths in ways far more scary than simply finding a new place to live.

According to a recent TIME article, millions of Americans are having their identities stolen after they die. It’s becoming more and more common for criminals to use a dead person’s Social Security number to do things like open lines of credit and start cell phone service.  However, you can take the following steps to prevent this from happening:

  1. When someone dies, make sure that whoever is handling the estate notifies relevant entities like taxation and health services agencies.  Include instructions in your own will to this effect.
  2. Keep an updated list of all email and social media contacts, including login information and passwords, and store it somewhere safe (like your Life at Hand® Organizer).  Make sure that someone is assigned the task of closing down or memorializing all social media profiles and email accounts upon death.

While these actions can’t guarantee that the deceased’s identity won’t be stolen, they can go a long way in cutting the odds of it happening.  But Billy Crystal still might get your apartment.

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Remember to Update Your Will!

April 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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It can be so hard to find the time and motivation to write a will in the first place, that once you get that done and can check it off your endless to-do list, it’s tempting to just forget all about it.

Well, I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but the fact is, when significant life events change your situation, it’s crucial to update your will to reflect those changes.  In fact, it’s often worse to have a will that hasn’t been updated than to have no will at all.

Train yourself to think of updating your will in the same way as you might about going to the doctor.  When do you go to the doctor?  Well, hopefully, you go for an annual checkup even if you’re in good health.  It should be the same with your will:  Revisit it at least once a year just to look over it and make sure everything’s in order.

You also go to the doctor when there’s a change in your health, and in the same way, when something significant changes in your life situation, that’s the time to update your will.

If you’re not sure what kinds of changes count as “significant,” refer to this checklist at findlaw.com.

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Whitney Houston’s Death and the Importance of Trusts

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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There has been speculation since death of pop star Whitney Houston on February 11th about the value of her estate.  What’s  certain, however, is that shortly before her death she had won a lawsuit against her stepmother to receive a  $1 million insurance policy left to her by her father.  Since Houston’s will designates her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, as the primary heir, unless Houston had  time to set up a trust for Bobbi Kristina, the 18-year-old will inherit the money outright.

If you have ever known an 18-year-old, it isn’t too difficult to imagine how disastrous it could be to suddenly dump so much money on him or her.  This is why setting up an inheritance with trusts can be so valuable.  This way, the money can be managed by someone more mature until the heir is more prepared to deal with the responsibilities and complexities of a such a large sum.

The irony is that those who most need to execute this kind of planning (the very wealthy) are often the least likely to do it because it can be such a complex and time-consuming process.  Whether you’re wealthy or not, though, the lesson in all of this is simply awareness – it’s crucial to look ahead to anticipate the financial impact of our death on loved ones, especially our children, and make provisions to cushion that impact as much as possible.

Make no mistake – receiving a large amount of money all at once is as much a burden as a gift, especially for those with little financial education.  And unfortunately, that’s not just the 18-year-olds, but most of us.

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Preparing for Your Tax Refund

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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A few weeks ago, I mentioned that windfalls can have a negative effect on people’s lives.   What I said there applies to tax refunds too; even though they may be small compared to things like an inheritance, there is always the danger of blowing through it before you even know where it’s going.

That’s why, the most important thing you can do is PLAN what you’re going to do with the money.  If you use a tool like Mint, you can enter the amount you will receive as income, and add categories to your budget for any non-regular items you wish to spend it on.  But whether you’re doing it online, with an Excel spreadsheet, or on paper, you need to actually record your plans for every cent of that refund.

Once you know how much you’ll be receiving, you can start the process by brainstorming all the needs and wants you might put the refund toward.  Then narrow down the list to fit the budget.  Start with savings and debts.  Financial blogger Sarah Gilbert, at the website Get Rich Slowly, recommends that you choose at least one debt to pay down and plan to put a third of the  refund into a savings account.  She also cautions against spending the money before you get it, whether it be with credit cards or putting down a deposit the day you expect the refund to arrive.

However, Gilbert also flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that says you should only spend 1% of your refund on splurges.  “After all,” she says, “it’s only a tax refund.”  So go ahead and live a little, but make sure you don’t go over that 5%, which will of course be much easier if you keep excellent track of both your budget and every cent you spend.  The reward for this discipline will be that when you do splurge within the budget you’ve set, you’ll be able to fully enjoy your indulgence without any guilt or worry whatsoever.

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Getting Married Means Getting Prepared

January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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When planning a wedding, with so many details to focus on it can be easy to overlook planning for what happens AFTER the wedding.  Many people don’t spend much time considering the ins and outs of combining households with their new spouse.

But they should, because no matter how big and complex the wedding is, joining two lives in terms of money, housing, and other aspects is bigger and more complex.  And for older couples, even moreso.  As Lisa Scherzer at SmartMoney.com puts it:

Marriage at any age means a marriage of finances. But the fact that older folks are likely coming into a second or third marriage with adult children, assets, a house, a 401(k) and perhaps failing health makes a trip to the altar significantly more complicated.

It’s common knowledge these days that money battles are a major contributor to divorce, so it’s crucial to get those financial ducks in a row before you’re standing at the altar.  According to the New York Times article, Money Fights Predict Divorce Rates, couples who disagree over finances once a week are more than 30 percent likely to divorce than couples who only have financial disagreements a few times a month.

As uncomfortable and mundane as it might be, it’s important to discuss with your intended ahead of time all the many things that combining households will mean.  And it’s best to do this through a series of conversations rather than trying to sit down and get it all done at once.

Ron Lieber of the New York Times has written an  excellent article called Money Talks to Have Before Marriage, in which he categorizes the major topics a couple should address.  Another great resource for conversation starters from Estate Planning Answers can be found here.  This article provides helpful questions to consider together, including issues related to investing, wills and trusts, and savings and retirement.

For young couples, it may seem premature to talk about things like estate planning and retirement before marrying, but making decisions together now will only strengthen your chances of having a happy marriage in the long run.  After all, you’re planning on spending the rest of your lives together, so it only makes sense to plan for the “old and gray” years.

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A Fresh Start for the New Year

January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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After the messiness of the holidays, after the tree has been taken down and the decorations put away, it’s a natural urge to thoroughly clean the house and get things more organized.  Creating freshness and order in a living space can be an incredibly energizing and inspiring thing to do.  We never realize how much clutter can weigh us down until we clear it out.

If you’re noticing an excess of clutter in your home right now and feel a bit overwhelmed about how to tackle it, take heart – the hardest part is just getting started.  The trick is to create momentum, and to do that you just have to jump in somewhere.  According to simplicity blogger and author, Leo Babauta, in his article How to Tackle Your Clutter, there are two main ways to do this.  The first he calls “The Surge,” and this involves setting aside a period of time like a weekend devoted to decluttering as much as possible.  The other method he calls “Chunking,” which means picking one relatively small space at a time to declutter.

No matter which method you choose, once you get going with it you’ll start feeling lighter right away.  It may not seem like simply decluttering your home could be a transformative life event, but it really can.  It comes down to that momentum.  According to minimalist blogger Courtney Carver, in her article, How to Make Decluttering Fun, decluttering her house motivated her to then work on becoming debt-free, which in turn led her to quit her job and start her own consulting business.

And if you’ve been avoiding getting your vital documents in order, start by de-cluttering your house and you just may find the motivation that’s been eluding you.

 

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Planning Your Own Funeral is Not as Morbid as it Seems

January 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Imagine you (or your child or grandchild) decided to get married – tomorrow.  What kind of a wedding would that be?  With no time to plan, not only would it be haphazard and spare at best, but it would cause A LOT of stress for you and any others involved.

This may sound like a ludicrous scenario, but it’s analogous to what happens with most people’s funerals.  According to AARP, a whopping 79% of people age 50+ have not even begun to comparison shop for funerals or burials.  People die with few or no instructions for how to carry out their funerals, and then those who are grieving are left to handle all the details for a life event that is no less significant than a wedding.

What this says to me is that people are so afraid to face their own mortality that they will burden their loved ones in the most unkind way possible upon their death.

But lest I’m doing too much finger-wagging here, let me admit that I don’t normally enjoy thinking about my own death any more than anyone else.  Until today, that is – when I discovered My Wonderful Life, a website devoted to planning one’s own funeral.  According to founders Sue Kruskopf and Nancy Bush, “We started MyWonderfulLife.com because we feel that a person’s funeral should be a reflection of their life; unique, personal and meaningful.”

By registering for a free account, you can create a funeral plan online and then email a link to those who will carry out your wishes.  The beautiful thing  about this site is that it actually makes you want to design your funeral and burial.  It infectiously conveys the sense that a funeral is a celebration of a life.

Even – or perhaps especially- if you still haven’t started your estate plan, check out My Wonderful Life.  I’ll wager that a few minutes exploring this site will bring out enthusiasm for funerals you never thought you could experience.  And it will motivate you to begin the important process of planning how to lessen the negative impact of your death on the people you love most.

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21st Century Budgeting Options

November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Remember when you were a kid and your parents taught you about money?  I bet one of the first things they said was “You need to have a budget.”  For many of us, though, “budget” has become a four-letter word to be avoided at all costs.

Well, cost you, it will.  You can count on that.

Operating financially without a budget is like traveling without a map – you might still get where you want to go, but it will probably take a whole lot more time, energy, and  resources because of all the unnecessary detours.  Your budget is your single most important financial planning tool, the foundation on which all financial stability is built.

In this day and age, budgeting doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore.  It can even be – dare I say it? – fun.

That’s because there are so many more pleasant options for creating a budget these days.  Yes, I’m talking about the Internet.  Let’s start with the amazing variety of downloadable (and printable, of course) budget templates you can find for free on the Web.  There’s definitely one out there to suit your taste and needs; all you have to do is some painless Googling.  You can find them in Word format, and many are even in Excel and will do the calculations for you!  You can choose one with a few simple categories, or one that itemizes just about anything you could spend money on.  Take your pick.  At Budgetsaresexy.com you can even peruse links to some of the best ones out there.

Also, there are wonderful websites like Mint.com, where you can register for free and create a customized budget online, which is then saved for you to view any time you log on.  What’s great about this is that it can also link to and factor in transaction information from bank accounts that you have online access to, so it shows you exactly where your money is going.  You’ll need to spend some time at the outset setting up your profile, but the time, money, and headache it will save you in the long run is well worth it.

So if you’ve been putting off creating a budget, stop it right now!  With all of these wonderful tools, there’s simply no need.  And once you’ve gotten through the initial process, you’ll feel a sense of empowerment and  peace of mind you may never before have experienced.

 

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