Just found this old doc from the State Department.
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I have two google documents that I share with my sibling about my parents homes.
The first file is all of the systems that are needed for the house; for each category there is note on how billing and payment is done, who the contacts are, and information particular to that category. For example:
Septic
-
Alarm box is on the south side of the main house just below and to the east of the fireplace vent box.
-
If Alarm goes off push red button
- If red light is solid - means liquid level is high
-
To manually override alarm:
- Disconnect power (inside power box, to left of alarm box: pull fuse straight out)
- Press red button in and hold
- While holding red button, push fuse back into power on
- Hold button in for 3 seconds, release
- Push button back in and hold to start pump. Depress for 5 minutes for 200 gallons
-
[_____ Septic Services]([link to their website]) did installation on Main House
-
Main House needs biannual septic inspection
- _____ Pump Company. P. O. Box ___. [phone number]
- Pump company does not need to be called, itās on a contract - but the contract needs to be renewed twice a year. Billed via US mail, Dad writes a check. Approximately $300 per trip.
- If any problem with the septic system, call ______ company.
As another example, for Water there is info on the water company, account, billing, and how it is paid (autopay out of __ bank), as well as photos and locations of where the shut off valves are, and contact info for their plumber.
Other categories include:
Propane and fireplace
Electrical
Garbage
Security System
Landscaping - irrigation system, lawn care, landscaping services: who, what they do, and when it needs to be scheduled. Notes on where the back flow boxes are, photos of drains.
Exterior house painting - photos of the tops of the cans of paint (formula and paint info), name of contractor
Interior house painting. - same as above
Water softener System
Cable and Wifi
Property Taxes
And then there is a Misc Notes section for different quirks of the house; where extra paint is kept, where the property markers are, where this drain goes and that you need to check it, etc.
The second file is a calendar, divided into the seasons and month to month. There are also quarterly, biannual and annual tasks that are listed for each season.
Every time something is done on the house these days, some sort of chore or quirk, we make a note of it and put it in our master document.
Example of a seasonās page:
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Very comprehensive, and the bibliography could be very helpful.
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Ours is more along the lines of:
Dear Sonā
Itās all yours. Do what you want with it. You know the number to call for access to all our assets/money. Enjoy.
Love,
-Mom and Dad-
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That state department doc has tons of information I would not want floating around about me. Like everyoneās SS numbers, etc.
I have a small address book. Everything that is needed is in that address book, neatly placed where it belongs in the alphabet. My husband and kids know where it is. They have copies of the relevant documents also (POA, wills, health care directives, etc). No SS numbers on those!
Iād worry about someone getting that list above and identity theftā¦because everything they need is there!
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We have our important info, passwords, account info, etcā¦ in a safe. D know where to find the key and has the phone number of the estate attorney. Weāve also added her name to our safety deposit box.
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Many of the banks around here are actually doing away with safety deposit boxes. There was an article recently in the paper about this. Reasonā¦not enough demand for use anymore.
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As long as your immediately family members donāt talk about itā¦anyone who breaks into houses typically doesnāt look for those things unless right next to computer and they steal the computer.
DH and I need to do baby steps in getting stuff organized (rather me, with DH following the lead). How we put off thingsā¦
One item I havenāt seen mentioned is Phone PIN/Unlock number. If I can get into my wifeās phone I should be good and her vice versa.
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Our son is a professional hacker. If we ever forgot our passwords or got locked out of any account/phone/computer/safe, heād be in in no time. Itās pretty much what he does for a living, and heās very good at it.
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Honestly, I think the nitnoid details are not that important. Whatās most important to me is that the kids know where our money is. All that work weāve done over our lives, donāt want it to disappear and end up as going to the state.
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That is one of the side benefits of us using our fee-only finacial advisor. Initially it forced us to pull together our financial picture - my husband has a nice overview spreadsheet. But it also provides a set of contacts who know of all our assetsā¦. the big chunks within their Schwab oversight account as well as other assets not under their advisement.
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you can certainly help them out by consolidating assets under just a couple of umbrellas. For example, do you still need that Treasury Direct account? Will buying $5k bonds every year really move the needle? Ditto all of those bank CDās held at numerous banks to chase a few basis points? (not saying your BD, but any folks have multiple accounts with few dollars in them. When my step-mom passed, she had a half dozen brokerage accounts, with less than $20k in all but one. She was a former bookkeeper, who maintained meticulous records, but still, dealing with a full service broker to get them to cash out $5k was a PIA.)
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I donāt know that the solution is permanent, but as long as I keep working actively, I have an executive assistant. She has a password protected file that contains most of the relevant information for me and ShawWife and our kids. We have two financial advisors. The kids have met and talked with both and have accounts at both. One of them has the location of all of our assets. Our lawyer is a family friend who the kids have known since they were born. They have talked to our accountant. The lawyer and the accountant handle stuff for my business interests and me personally. So, I think they can call the people who could a) identify all that was needed; and b) all that had to be done if we died.
I have not planned for the possibility about being incapacitated, but at one point, my mother was in the hospital for Guillan-Barre syndrome and my father at a different hospitalfor lung cancer. I had aleady taken over their finances. But, I think all of the professionals in place would help.
If I have to stop working, I would lose my EA and I think I would have to organize for the kids (and ShawWife) a bit more.
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hereās some suggestions from bogleheads:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=119346
btw: donāt forget that a POA all by ends with the personās death. (In CA, one can put funeral services in a HealthCare POA and that will be binding.)
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I printed a copy for our neighbor and for us. Neighbor has been executor of his momās estate, and it will all be āfreshā for him. We have discussed various things with her estate - it turns out his dad and mom did pretty well with having things organized.
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What was the issue cashing them out, or transferring the assets to one estate owned brokerage account?
Just to make it even more complicated, did those small accounts contain stuff like limited partnerships that send out K-1 forms late and showing various unusual kinds of income that would not otherwise have to be handled in tax filing if it were not for the limited partnerships?
no, no special assets or organizations; just a handful of common stocks. Simple will. No trust. Under teh probate threshold in CA.
The full service broker just had its own rules to transfer/sell equities which were beyond what others required. I got tired of arguing with them that their process was over-the-top, so I wrote to their CEO, 2nd day air. Gotta call from their GC 3 days later as she was heading out on vacation. With me on the line, she personally went down a few floors to the Operations Manager and made it clear that they had 5 days to process the sell order before she returned from vac. She gave me her personal cell number to confirm that the funds transfer took place.
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My FIL did a great job organizing everything, and he told us where everything was. Then after he passed, my SIL took everything to her house, including the contents of the safe deposit box (MIL asked her to take everything). And now SIL claims certain important documents arenāt there (as in, she never got them). I donāt think she is being nefarious ā¦ I know that her basement rivals that of a hoarder, so itās most likely MIA. If FIL hadnāt been cremated, heād be rolling over in his grave.
We just closed out my motherās estate. I knew where everything was as I had taken over my parentās finances 22 some years ago when my father had a stroke. I moved the money all to TIAA (simplifying from about 6 brokerage firms). I got her to rewrite her will. So it was as clean as could be (except for the repayment the estate will some day receive for 90% of what she paid for a unit in senior independent living). But, handling the will during the Pandemic in Tennessee and then extracting the money from TIAA were both extremely slow and time-consuming. Iām not a lawyer but my co-executor is and Iām very experienced with finance and setting up brokerage accounts etc. It is finally done but Lord help the people who donāt have the sophistication that we brought to the table.
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