Nextwave Finance

Creating a Financial Organizer Document: What do you have and where do you keep it?

June 2nd, 2007 | by rachel |

A couple of years ago, my husband had some serious health problems.  After that experience, we spent some time re-evaluating our finances, wills and insurance to make sure everything was current.  Part of that process was the creation of a document called a “financial organizer”.  It is a word processing document that lists pertinent information about our financial, legal, property and insurance records.  It specifies what we have and where it is kept.  When something happens to one or both of us, it will simplify the process of handling our assets.

A “financial organizer” is NOT a legal document.  It is a personal document that is formatted to meet your needs and desires.  Because of the information it contains, it is an extremely sensitive document and should be protected accordingly.  We keep a copy with our wills and we have made the executors of our wills aware of its presence.  Other than that, no one has access to it.

WHY SHOULD I HAVE A FINANCIAL ORGANIZER?

1.  It helps you track your assets and accounts.

2.  It simplifies your preparation for filing taxes.

3.  It allows someone to assist you with financial issues in the event you become temporarily or permanently disabled.

4.  It simplifies the process of distributing your assets upon your death.

HOW DO I CREATE A FINANCIAL ORGANIZER?

1.  Centralize your financial records.

If you have records in multiple places and mixed with other types of documents, this is the time to sort through those records.  Gather all your financial information and put it in the same place.  If you do not have a home office, create a filing system that can be set up in a portable file box. 

You financial filing system should include:

-current bills and expense records

-budgets

-bank records (statements and/or canceled checks)

-loan records

-tax records

-credit card statements and receipts

-business expenses

-insurance records

-safe deposit box records

-credit reports

-list of bank accounts (including balance statements)

-investment records

-powers of attorney (pertaining to finance)

-ownership records (titles, deeds, etc.)

2.  Discard information that is no longer current.

3.  List your records and assets.

Think of this list as a contact list.  It should include pertinent information (name, address, phone number, web site, passwords, joint account holder names, type of account, etc.) about each account/asset, where to find it and how to access it.  This list does NOT need to include specific information about the value of the account/asset.

4.  Update your list when you make a change.

In order for your financial organizer to do its job, the information it contains must be reliable.  Be sure to update it when you make any changes, get new credit cards, change banks, etc.

5.  Give someone a copy and/or tell them where to find your organizer.

Because of the nature of the information that this list will contain, you will want to limit the number of people that know of its existence as well as the number of people that see it.  If you don’t feel comfortable giving an actual copy away, tell someone you trust about it so they can find it if they ever need to.

How can I secure my financial organizer?

1.  File a copy with your current will.

2. Only tell of its existence to people that may need to use it (spouse, executor of will, attorney, accountant).

3. Store it in a place that is not easil accessible (preferably not a safe deposit box).

There are MANY different ways to format a document of this kind.  The most important thing to remember when creating one for yourself is to make it something that works for you.  Don’t make it complicated where it doesn’t need to be but make it detailed enough to be useful!