Trent at The Simple Dollar advocates preparing a document like this.
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/...tion-document/
My worry about making this and giving it over to my parents, who aren't super careful about this kind of thing. Yet they would be some of the ones that would be needing it in, well, the event that it's needed!
Anyone ever made a document like this? Advice?
Yup....I have all of our personal, banking, etc. information written out and locked up safely (you certainly don't want this kind of information in an unlocked file cabinet somewhere). It is important to keep it up to date though and while it can be a royal pain to do, I feel it is well worth it for the peace of mind. The executor of our wills knows where it is kept and can access it when the time comes - hopefully not too soon.
There is just so much to do when someone dies and it makes things so much easier if everything is at the fingertips of the person in charge. When hubby and I married (11 years ago), he wrote me a letter of what to do in case something happened to him. He gave it to me to read over and then while I looked at him with a stunned look on my face he calmly explained that now we were going to lock it away and forget about it. I was horrified at the time, but I know that if anything did happen to him (and it better not or I'll kill him), I would just have to get the letter and start following his instructions.
Our net worth statement lists all of our financial account numbers. I leave it laying around in a bedroom drawer. Slap me!
But the other stuff, credit card accounts--nope. Honestly, I don't worry aobut online accounts although yes I do have most of them written down, but they are social stuff although I suppose someone could conscript my paypal or ebay account.
Maybe, when I get thorugh my family photo project, I'll start up this project to co-incide whenDH updates our net worth statement.
Yes, we have everything, including a will, living will, health care proxy, the contents of our wallets, copy of our vehicle titles and house papers all together. Also, I included account numbers and contact numbers for our money. I did a whole house photo inventory, taking pictures of the contents in each room- if we ever had a fire or were robbed I wouldn't even know what was taken before doing this. I also scanned in every photo in the house and put it on a disc.
If either of us had a serious medical condition that needed continuous care I would also get a copy of my medical records and scan them onto a disc.
All of this info is in one place and the kids know where it is and how to access it. I did give everyone a copy of the photo discs. I am thinking of getting one of the kids to get a safety deposit box so we can give him a copy of everything but I haven't done that yet, as I would like a copy of everything outside the house in case of flood or fire. He may have a safe and if he does I'll just give it to him. It really didn't take that long.
I keep all this in a spreadsheet that resides in a usb drive/memory stick. It's kept in a particular place in the house. People who need to know have been told what to look for. There's also a paper copy in the safe-deposit box that I update once a year, after I update the electronic copy. Our accounts don't change that much, so an annual update is plenty.
For any PC that accesses the internet, I *don't* keep this kind of information on it. And if I do want to plug the usb drive in, I make sure the network is shut off first and I've run a virus scanner recently.
Note that the referenced web site mentions a will as part of this document. That's dangerous: a will is a document particular to state of residence and needs to exist on a separate piece of paper. The master document needs to point to where the will is kept! Same for durable powers of attorney, health care directives, etc. Take a careful look at what your state requires for each document and manage them appropriately!
There's a book called When I'm Gone that walks you through EVERYTHING that someone would need to know. All you have to do is fill in the blanks. Not very expensive, but very worth it.
As the executor of my parents estate, my attorney father updates all of this every 3 years for me. I need to follow his good model! I appreciate knowing about these resources, thank you.
This is a really good idea. I will do this, and plan to make my parents do it too!
We have a will.a living will and the lawyer keeps all the copies.Our 2 children know about accounts and investments.Makes life pretty easy and it's some thing you just have to do and update evry 2 years.
Anita
My father has given my sister and I a similar document, which will be very helpful. I've not made one. However, all my accounts and their online passwords are stored in a Keepass password vault. My SO has the password to my computer and the vault and knows where on my computer to find the vault. If he needs to he'll be able to access it and from there get all my account numbers and info. Pretty much the same goal has been accomplished, but it's in an encrypted file on my computer.
Back to the OP, giving your parents the password to your password vault and instructions on how to get into it if ever needed would be a good way to give them access to the info only if/when the time comes that they need it. Especially since you could always change the password in the event that they lost/gave it away to someone.
KeePass is a piece of freeware that I highly recommend. It generates random secure passwords, stores them encrypted, and can be put on a USB thumb drive to easily transport. http://keepass.info/
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