ORGANIZE your personal and family financial information.

This is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things you can do for you and your family.  If you do not already have your financial information available and organized for your family, make plans to have one in place before the end of the year.

It is important to have:

– A Will: A legal document in which a person declares to whom his or her possessions are to go after death.

– A Living Will:  A declaration to the world, your family, your doctors, anyone who may be interested, that describes or lists the care that you wish to receive or do not wish to receive if you are in an end-of-life situation such as a coma, or if you have a terminal condition.

– A Health Care Power of Attorney: This designates a person to make health care decisions for you if you become incapacitated, not only in an end-of-life situation, but if you are just living and cannot make your own decisions for yourself.  This should also include what is called a “Health Care Directive“, which is similar to the language that is in a Living Will, that in a Health Power of Attorney it does not dictate to anyone what they must always or what they must never do.  It gives the designated person in the Health Care Power of Attorney the ability to make decisions for you and to instruct doctors or the hospital on what they should or should not do.

Below is a great document organizer that has everything you need to organize your affairs and prepare for the unexpected.  It contains a bestselling workbook, document organizer and Forms CD containing electronic copies of all the forms found in the workbook If Something Happens To Me, written by a Financial Planner and an Estate Planning Attorney.

The workbook takes you through step-by-step information you need to have in place and available for your loved-ones:

– Personal information (Social Security numbers, home addresses, children info., who to contact if something happens to you, etc.)

– Financial information (Assets, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, your IRAs, if you have a retirement plan at work, if you own a business, your cars, your house, etc.)

The kit includes:

– Worksheets to record details relating to your financial, legal and insurance affairs

– Professional insights on a host of legal and financial issues

– Step-by-step guidance for your heirs

– Worksheets to record funeral preferences and obituary information

– Comprehensive document locator system

– Websites and contact information for relevant government agencies

– Document organizer to store your most important documents

– Forms CD to make electronic copies of your information

and a lot more!

To obtain a kit, you can go to familylife.com and purchase online, or you can call 1-800-358-6329 and request the If Something Happens To Me 3-piece kit.

Yes, this will take some time and effort, and some $$ to make it legal (through an attorney), although you will be leaving a lot of questions up to the laws in your state if you do not plan ahead.

Take the time each month (before the end of the year) to complete a different portion of the necessary information needed until ALL of your financial and personal information is documented and organized for your family.  Plan to review and update these important documents at least once a year.