Being prepared is not just about having a trust or power of attorney. It is making sure someone knows how to manage the everyday details of your life and your home if you cannot.
Most of us have thought about estate planning in some form. Maybe you have a trust, a will, or a power of attorney. You may have told your children where the important documents are.
But there is another question I think we should be asking:
If something happened tomorrow and you could not manage things yourself for a while, would someone actually know what to do?
I am not necessarily talking about death. You could have surgery, be hospitalized, have an accident, or simply need someone else to take over temporarily.
That is when families sometimes discover how much information lives only in one person's head.
Think about your home first
Your home has its own little ecosystem.
Who pays the mortgage or HOA? When are the property taxes due? Who is your insurance company? Is the gardener paid automatically? What about the housekeeper, pest control, alarm company, pool service or other recurring services?
Then there are the basics.
Where is the water shutoff? Who has an extra key? What is the alarm code? Where are the HOA documents? Is there a gate remote? Who knows which company handles the utilities?
None of these things seems particularly important until someone else suddenly needs to figure them out.
Then there is your financial life
Many of us barely receive paper bills anymore.
Statements arrive electronically. Bills are automatically deducted. Accounts have passwords and two-factor authentication. Important notices may only arrive by email.
That is convenient when you are managing everything yourself.
It can be incredibly confusing when someone has to step in.
Consider whether the appropriate person knows where to find information about your:
- Bank and investment accounts
- Insurance policies
- Credit cards and recurring payments
- Mortgage or other loans
- Social Security and pension information
- CPA, attorney and financial advisor
- Medicare or health insurance
- Utilities and household services
This does not mean handing someone all your passwords or giving up control of your finances.
It means creating a roadmap so the person legally authorized to help you knows where to begin.
Having the documents is only part of the answer
A trust and power of attorney can be extremely important, but having documents sitting in a drawer does not necessarily mean everything will run smoothly.
Does the person you have chosen know that they have been chosen?
Do they know where the documents are?
Do they know who your attorney is?
Do they understand enough about your finances and your home to know which questions to ask?
And are your documents current?
Those conversations can feel uncomfortable, so people put them off. But having the conversation while everything is fine is much easier than trying to piece everything together during an emergency.
Your adult children may know less than you think
This comes up frequently with families I work with.
Mom and Dad have handled their own affairs for decades. Their adult children know they have “everything taken care of,” but they may have no idea where anything actually is.
And if the children live outside Orange County, there is another layer.
They may suddenly be trying to manage a home, bills, medical decisions and other responsibilities from hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Imagine how much easier that would be if they started with a simple roadmap instead of a scavenger hunt.
Create a “If You Need to Step In” file
It does not need to be complicated.
Create one secure place that tells the appropriate person where to find what they need, including important contacts, accounts, household information and legal documents.
Think of it as an instruction manual for your life.
You can update it once a year, or whenever something significant changes.
And tell the person you trust where it is.
This is really about maintaining control
Planning for someone else to help does not mean giving up your independence.
I think it is exactly the opposite.
You are deciding who you trust, what you want them to know and how you want things handled while you are fully able to make those decisions yourself.
Hopefully, no one needs that information for a very long time.
But if they do, you have given them something incredibly valuable: a place to start.
