Estate Planning Alert: Do Your Executor a Favor
Legal Insights
01.22.2020
It is certainly unpleasant to think about your death and even more unpleasant to think about dying unexpectedly. However, there are a few simple things that you can do in advance to make life easier for those who will be handling your estate after you have passed away. The following is a list of items or documents that you should think about collecting together in a location you identify to your executor:
- Copies of and location of original executed estate planning documents (will, general power of attorney, health care power of attorney, living will)
- Information on advance funeral arrangements
- Copies of beneficiary designations of IRAs and qualified plans such as 401(k) arrangements
- List of all digital assets; digital accounts, with user IDs and passwords
- Copies of life insurance policies and beneficiary designations of life insurance policies
- Copies of acts of sale or deeds of real estate owned (if real estate is located out of state, consider transferring to a revocable trust or a family entity to avoid ancillary probate)
- List of bank and brokerage accounts
- List and location of other valuable assets
- Location of bank safe deposit box
- Copies of ownership agreements relating to closely-held businesses (shareholders’ agreements, operating agreements, partnership agreements, buy/sell agreements)
If you have any questions or you would like a tune up to your estate plan, please feel free to contact me.