Fiinancial Inventory

 Thinking of having someone act for you with a Power of Attorney now or in the future? If so before you act, you should complete your financial inventory or save it in a file along with your inventory, here is some of the information you will need:

•         Checking, savings, and credit card accounts including your online accounts and passwords

•         Regular monthly bills for the mortgage, rent, utilities, insurance, and subscription services (for example, newspapers, TV, internet, cell phone, and data storage)

•         Other bills for property taxes, homeowners insurance, car insurance

•         Income tax returns

•         Insurance policies (life, health, home, car, long term care, and other property)

•         Investment and retirement accounts such as Individual Retirement Accounts

•         Other sources of retirement income such as Social Security, pensions, and annuities

•         Debts such as your mortgage, home equity or personal loans, credit cards, and any medical debt

•         Safe deposit boxes or in-home safes

•         Valuable personal belongings such as cars, jewelry, art, antiques

•         Real estate deeds, including rental properties or vacation homes and titles to all vehicles

•         Address, email and phone numbers for professionals who handle your money, such as an accountant, financial advisor, or attorney, and other service providers and close contacts

•         Your last will and testament and any pre-paid funeral arrangements

•         Any trust documents you have in place

Where should you store all this private information?

Save or store your financial inventory and other important documents in a secure place. If you keep an electronic copy, make it a password-protected document. If you print out your inventory, store it in a locked file cabinet, home safe, or a safe deposit box.

More people choose to store their financial information online using tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud. This method is often called cloud storage. Saving your information in the cloud makes it accessible anytime, anywhere as long as you have a laptop, tablet or smartphone with internet access. Most online cloud providers use security features, such as passwords or two-step verification, to keep your documents secure. Spend time to learn how these important features work.