As the family money manager, I have an important responsibility which I never considered before last week. It’s a responsibility to insure my wife knows how to get access to all of our financial information and important documents immediately, if something ever happened to me.
This is a serious topic many people don’t want to think about or discuss, but its reality. I know because I recently experienced the passing of a family member. Amongst many things that are discussed between family members after losing a loved one is always a need to discuss finances.
Perhaps it’s a family member who lived alone or a spouse who managed the money for the family. In either situation, there are a lot of questions about how to keep the lights on, where to find documents, or how to make a mortgage payment. If the finances are unorganized, it’s up to family members, or a surviving spouse, to look through everything and come up with a plan.
While my wife participates and helps me in managing our finances, she doesn’t know exactly how to get access to all of our accounts and where certain documents are located. This is alarming to me and therefore, I’ve taken some time to create a small plan to organize this information should she ever need it. I feel so strongly about this, I want to share it with you too.
Many of you may have already set your finances in order for this purpose, but if you haven’t, I want to encourage you to avoid delay in performing this important responsibility. If you’re not the family money manager, offer to help your spouse or share this post with them.
A Simple Action Plan
1. Set up a safety deposit box at a local bank. Both spouses’ names should be included on the box (close family member if single). Note: I suppose a secure/fire proof safe could also be used, but I like the idea of finding a safe place away from our home.
2. Collect and include the following items for the safety deposit box:
- Will and other legal documents
- Car titles
- Insurance policies for life, house and cars
- Birth certificates
- Social security cards
- Passports
- Extra keys to the house and cars
- Financial information cheat sheet (sealed envelope)
Financial Information Cheat Sheet
- Account information for retirement investments, banks, and mortgage (financial institution, purpose of account, website, online username/password & account number). Note: if you use a Word document on your computer to type up this information, make sure you delete all usernames and passwords from the document after printing it for storage in your safety deposit box. You don’t want such important information to be easily accessible on your computer should it be stolen or misplaced.
- Important contacts (financial advisor, lawyer, tax advisor, insurance agent, etc.)
- Special instructions, if necessary
3. Visit the safety deposit box with your spouse or family member and show him or her how to access it. The money manager can collect all of the above information, but the spouse should either participate in filling the box, or be given a tour once the box is ready.
The idea is to include absolutely everything required to set finances in order, or maintain them if the money manager were to pass away or become ill. Ideally, by following this plan my wife could pick up my responsibilities without much effort or ask a close family member to help her in doing so.
It’s a difficult subject to talk or think about, especially with your spouse. But having your financial information in such order will provide peace of mind and help insure the surviving spouse or trusted family member doesn’t experience additional stress during what will already be a difficult time period.
What additional information, if any, would you include in the safety deposit box? Do you think the safety deposit box is a good idea, or would you store the information elsewhere?
Check out our previous posts on fire safes & safety deposit boxes, and “what if I die” spreadsheets.
Great advice! We did this a number of years ago and it has certainly made us feel more comfortable.
Another thing we included in our “Passing On” box (our name for the safe deposit box for this express purpose) was three $1,000 I-Bonds (cash would work too) paper certificates, with them being cashable in either name. We did this just in case one of us did need to open the “Passing On” box, and needed money immediately (we don’t keep that kind of money in our debit card accessible accounts).
The idea being, if we are opening the “Passing On” box, then we will be stressed out and distraught enough that the simplicity of cashing these instruments (versus figuring out which money to move where) is worth some of the interest that could be gained in other investments.
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I like your idea of having some cash in the box as well. That’s probably a wise thing to do and you’re right, considering transfering the money, etc. may just be an added stress or decision that can be avoided.
Jason´s last post ..Handy List of FREE Debt & Credit Calculators
In his book “Smart Couples Finish Rich,” David Bach encourages couples to create a file system that has almost all information you could ever need or want to know. He gives you a list of files to label and fill with information such as: credit card accounts, liabilities (mortgage, student loans, etc.), retirement accounts, insurance (car, house, life), savings accounts and the like. Before reading that book, I had stuff scattered everywhere, but since creating the filing system our financial info has gotten a lot more organized. If anything were to happen to either my spouse or myself, all the info is right there.
Shawn G, yes that is a good system. I’ve read the book and actually wrote a post about it at One Money Design. I like the idea of the safety deposit box because it’s out of our home. For example, I might be able to better protect important documents, such as our will, from theft or fire. Thanks for mentioning David Bach’s system. I’ll revisit that as I finish my “Passing On Box” (as Sailboat Family calls it) to make sure I’ve covered everything.
Jason´s last post ..Handy List of FREE Debt & Credit Calculators
Jason, I would agree that keeping important documents in a safety deposit box is probably a better strategy. Unfortunately, for my wife and I we do not really have any major assets, so all the information we have now is our debt. As we get to a place where our student loans are behind us, then we will take the step of getting a safety deposit box and keeping our important documents in it.
My wife and I handle our financial affairs jointly. For practicle purposes, we each have certain accounts we take care of, but we’re both aware of what the other manages. We see this joint participation as necessary, just in case something happens to one of us. We’ve seen what happens to couples who don’t do this and it can be a complete catastrophe.
Jason, this post is an excellent cheat sheet to get prepared. Even though a couple might share finance management as my wife and I do, when the moment comes panic can overtake common sense.
I think what you’ve outlined is a must have in every household.
Kevin@OutOfYourRut´s last post ..Finding Work by Working for Free
Great post! I do have a safe deposit but I don’t have some of the things you mentioned…acct#/passwords…I’m going to work on this before next year. Thanks
Could not agree more with this article. I like many others have been in this situation and as a result I created a Windows software application called myINFOSAFE to help me, my family, and others better manage this type of information. myINFOSAFE has become much more than this though, and can now help you manage nearly all your personal information in a secure and convenient way. Because it now also stores passwords and userID’s, financial info, asset info, Health info and even has a daily diary page, you are often using the application and therefore are prompted to keep it up to date. Rather than go on about it here, please go to our website and have a look around and read about how it works and the benefits it offers. There is a free 30 day trail of the software available so what have you got to lose.
Awesome idea! My wife is pretty much aware of what’s going on in our finances, but she would probably have trouble accessing accounts if something were to happen to me.
It’s never too early to start thinking about this kind of stuff.
We have a safe deposit box currently, and I think it’s a great idea to put all important account information in there. Currently, we only have documents and old credit cards in the box.
My mom is actually great about this kind of stuff–whenever she travels out of the country, I get the “death” speech, instructing me how to access accounts, safes, insurance, and everything else in case of death. I know–it’s a wonderful way to send her off, but her idea is on the right track.
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