Hi. Lee Phillips here.
I want to talk about
making an asset list for your heirs.
Now, okay
maybe you don't think about that much
but your kids are gonna think about it
after you die and yes you are going to die
that's one of the certainties.
The question is do you want to make it easy for your kids
to come in and manage things after you die?
Most people do want to do that
they want to help out the kids
so let's look at it for two seconds.
One of the big problems is finding the assets.
And I remember many years ago
in our church group
the man died
left a widow
and they had been through the depression and this guy didn't trust banks.
And he had bank accounts
little bank accounts
all over the place.
They assigned some of the men in the church group
to go and help this poor lady
find the assets
that her husband had
and it took over a year
and we still aren't sure
that we found all of the assets that this guy had hidden all over the place.
You're not hiding your assets but
it would be a good idea to make a list
that you have a safe deposit box here
and my wife and I
we found a set of safe-deposit box keys
a year ago
we haven't been to a safe deposit box in 30 years
we didn't know which bank it was.
We're alive
we finally figured it out
and we went and sure enough there was a safe deposit box
and we have got all kinds of stuff in this safe-deposit box
we hadn't seen it for 35 years or whatever it was
but we found it.
That would have been extremely hard for our heirs to have found.
Make a list
you have a safe deposit box in this bank
you have a savings account in this bank
you have a checking account in this bank
the business checking account is in this bank
the brokerage account is with this brokerage firm
I have an online brokerage account
I have these pieces of property
and yes your kids may not remember
that on the side of your house
there is a little sliver of property
that's a different deed
and yes that's my father
so it's important that you list these things
so that the kids can find them.
Another thing that you might want to do
is make a video
go through the house
I am doing this with my wife
my wife is dying
and we are going through the house and identifying stuff
because I don't know what half the stuff in the curio cabinet is
Where did this come from? Oh, that was your grandmother's.
and the children aren't gonna know that this thing has an inherent value
not monetary value
but personal value--this was my great-great grandmother's
and maybe your kids might like that.
So you're gonna have to record all of this stuff.
There's one more thing that I'm gonna
speak a little French with you here for a minute it's a real bitch
and that is passwords
who knows the passwords?
How do we get in to your email account?
Yeah we might want to read your email after you're dead
so that we know what's going on.
How do we get into the computer?
How do we get into the bank account?
How do we get into every place?
There are passwords and passwords and pass--
one of my biggest problems is remembering my own passwords
I can't remember them all
so make a list of the passwords too
you can keep it safe
put it in the safe deposit box
do whatever you want with it--write it in code
I don't care.
But the kids, your spouse
needs to know what the passwords are.
My father-in-law died
we had to have experts come in
get into the computer
because we didn't know what the passwords were.
So these are things that you need to do
in order to make it easy for your family
and I suspect that that's something you really kind of want to do.
So think about it.
One more thing that you might want to do
is prepay your funeral.
Yes, Kristy and I have prepaid our funerals
and the cost is less than half
of what it is if you walk in off the street
and you get to decide
exactly what you want.
You don't have the funeral guy standing there with his arm around you and say well
you really want to give mom and dad the best, don't you?
And that'll be an extra $10,000.
No, you made that decision.
You picked it out.
The kids don't have to worry about it.
I don't have to worry about it when Kristy dies.
So we understand exactly what's going to go on
when she dies
and what's gonna happen who's gonna pay for the flowers
the flowers are fixed everything is fixed
we know that.
So make life as easy as you can
for your children or your spouse
when you die
think about it a little bit in advance
yes we've picked out the gravestones
we've done everything else
if we both die tomorrow our kids won't have to do a thing
and it's gonna save the family
probably 50% anyway
of what it would have been
had we just walked in off the street.
So you need the list of assets
you need the list of passwords
and then do some extra planning in advance
it's going to make life a lot easier