This week, I’m talking about estate planning essentials. If you think a will is all you need or that you need to be ultra-wealthy with a complex estate to have all the proper documents in place, think again. Estate planning deals with so much more than divvying up your assets when you die, and it’s an essential way to help ensure that you and your loved ones are taken care of when (not if), but when you die or become incapacitated. 

Today, I’m actually going to talk about something I haven’t actually done myself. While it makes me feel quite hypocritical having not done something that I’m suggesting you do, I think it’s important enough for you to have in place, so I’m going to point the finger at myself first, and hopefully I’ll get around to actually doing this sooner rather than later. 

What I am talking about is the estate inventory checklist. I think this is a genius idea. It’s a detailed list of all of your assets, important documents, and where to find them, all in one place. What I think works best is some type of binder system where the estate inventory serves as a table of contents, and inside are all of the supporting documents for investment accounts, insurance policies, copies of your will and other estate documents, property holdings, safe deposit box information, etc. 

I mean the list can get pretty long depending on your assets and what you own. But think how much easier it will be for your loved ones and your executor to sort through your estate when everything is right there and nicely organized. 

I once had a client cash in an insurance policy death benefit years after her father died. She had no idea that her father had this insurance policy and the insurance companies usually aren’t in the habit of combing the obituaries to find policy owners who have died so they can contact the beneficiaries. This wouldn’t have happened if he had a detailed list of his assets and all the things relevant to his estate organized. 

I don’t have time to go into the details of everything to include in an estate inventory checklist in today’s tip, but google is your friend here. You can find several good lists online to get you thinking about what you want to include in your personal estate inventory checklist. You might also check with your estate attorney or your financial advisor to see if they have one for you or can help you with this process. Many hands on advisors, like myself, are more than happy to help their clients take inventory.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip. 

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