In most instances, people know whom they can trust. Usually it is those people that they choose to be guardians for their minors, or someone they choose to take care of medical decisions that may arise in your life. Whoever it is, make sure they know at least where to find your personal information in an emergency.
Ed has a client who told us a story about his father. I will call this client, Tom. Tom’s father passed away in 2001 from old age, leaving his widow at the ripe young age of 85 to the care of their 5 children including Tom. The 5 children spent the next 7 years caring for their mother. They each took turns paying for all her expenses. This was not an easy task for the 5 children, because money was tight for them without their mother’s expenses. Sadly in 2008 Tom’s mother passed away. The family decided to sell the family home and recover some of the money spent of caring for their mother. As they cleaned out a shed in the backyard Tom came across an old coffee can. In the coffee can was a significant life insurance policy his father had taken out on himself several years before. This life insurance policy would have covered all the expenses the family had covered and more for those 7 years following the death of their father. The father knew the life insurance policy would be safe in the barn, but he failed to realize that if no one knew the life insurance policy was there… no one was going to find it.
The moral of this story is… Tell those people that you trust with your information where to find it if they need it! Especially when you make an effort to protect you and your family with an estate plan, trusts, life insurance, final arrangements and so on, as you will do with the 52 Weeks to Prosperous Living program. What good is getting all of this information in order if no one knows where to find it if you die? Now, we are all going to die someday. This is inevitable. Make sure that when you die someone knows where your information is.