Spring has officially sprung and that means it’s spring cleaning time! Shake out the rugs, clean out the cupboards, and.. get your legal and financial affairs in order!
For plenty of folks, it’s easy to know what to do when it comes to home organization, but the idea of legal and financial ordering can be complex and confusing.
This article will give you a few places to start:
1. Review Your Beneficiary Designations
Request updated beneficiary designation forms from your life insurance account and retirement account custodians. Look at the form and identify whether you have a minor designated as either a primary or contingent beneficiary. If you do, those assets will be tied up in court unnecessarily, and may not be available to the people you’ve named to care for your children.
Consider designating your life insurance and retirement accounts to be distributed to a trust for the benefit of your heirs, providing Court and creditor protection, and ensuring your children do not inherit money before they are properly prepared.
2. Update Your Family Asset Inventory
Your family asset inventory is where you document the assets that you own, so that in the event you become incapacitated or when you die, your family will know how to find what you own.
Without an updated family asset inventory, your assets could be lost to the state department of unclaimed property. Last I checked, there was nearly $6 billion dollars of assets in the Texas state department of unclaimed property, in part, because many people do not leave a clear record of their assets at the time of their incapacity or death.
Don’t have an inventory? No problem, this doesn’t have to be complex. Just a simple list of your accounts can suffice. At the very least, it should include the name of the financial institution or insurance company, and what type of accounts you have there. If you have several accounts and maybe investments at a single bank, indicate that. Then, if you have more time, go ahead and also add who your designated beneficiaries are on that account, if you have any. That will make it an easy reference for you and your family moving forward. Of course, if you have any real estate other than your home, you want to list that on this list as well. The level of detail is up to you, but take it from me, ANY list will be better than NO list!
3. Consider If You Need to Name New Guardians (Long or Short-Term)
Review your guardian nomination designations. Have you named guardians for both the short-term (local) and the long-term (people you would trust to raise your kids fully)? If so, do they need to change? Is there anyone you would wish to exclude? Does the ID card for your wallet need to be updated? This is the time to check!
4. Check Out the Title to Your House
Get a copy of the deed to your house and make sure that your trust is listed as the owner on the deed, if you want your house to stay out of court in the event of your incapacity or death. If you see your personal name on the deed, and there is not a trust listed, you can be sure that would result in your house having to go through the court process of probate in the event of your death. If you don’t want that, now is the perfect time to spruce up your planning!
5. Come In and Meet With Me For a Family Planning Session
This is the perfect time of year to meet with me about your own family plan (book online here), whether you’ve done planning in the past or not. We will have a working meeting that will get you more financially organized than you’ve likely been before (unless you’ve already done planning with me) and give you the confidence of knowing you’ve made the most empowered, informed and educated legal and financial decisions for the people you love.
Happy sprucing!
