At a recent local atypical parkinsonism caregiver-only support group meeting, we talked about the importance of adult children knowing about their parents’ finances (especially where to find the necessary documents) and final wishes.
At the meeting, I mentioned a helpful article from the Wall Street Journal on this topic; I thought I’d share that resource more widely.
The article, titled “The 25 Documents You Need Before You Die,” instructs us to gather our important documents in one file box and tell family members where the file box is. This way family members don’t have to go hunting for these documents. The article notes that getting organized in this way provides huge piece of mind to parents and adult children.
The WSJ article suggests that one adult child work with one parent on this task. In one example, it took an entire year for a daughter and mother to go through all of the papers and visit all of the banks and brokerages to ensure the daughter was listed on the mother’s accounts.
The article notes the importance of having an original will and original trust documents in the file box. One expert says: If your family can’t find the original trust documents, you are “basically setting your estate up for litigation.”
Here’s a link to the WSJ article on the 25 documents:
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303627104576410234039258092.html
Weekend Investor
The 25 Documents You Need Before You Die
Wall Street Journal
By Saabira Chaudhuri
July 2, 2011
You may have to subscribe (or pay) to read the full article.
Beneath my name below, I’ve listed some of the documents you need to have.
One final note: It may be hard for a wife, who has never had responsibility for finances and legal documents, to ask her husband, now diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder, about these 25 documents. That’s why I think adult children can naturally champion this endeavor because, in the end, the adult children will get stuck with the task.
Robin
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The documents include:
- Will
- Living trust
- A “letter of instruction”
- Durable financial power-of-attorney form
- Proof of ownership for housing, land, cemetery plots, vehicles, stock certificates, savings bonds, any partnership agreements
- List of brokerage and escrow mortgage accounts
- List of loans you have made to others
- List of debts you owe
- Most recent three years of tax returns
- List of all bank accounts and online log-in information
- List of any safe-deposit boxes you own
- Durable health-care power-of-attorney form
- Living will. (The durable health-care power-of-attorney form and the living will constitute “advance directives.”)
- Copies of life-insurance policies with name of carrier, policy number, and agent associated with the policy.
- List of pensions, annuities, individual retirement accounts and 401(k)s
- Marriage license
- Divorce judgment or decree, or stipulation agreement. Include the distribution sheet listing bank-account numbers
