“Turnover” document -
The winter 2008 edition of USAA magazine includes an article about a “turnover” document a gentleman named Leonard Ratzman put together for his daughter so she would have all the info needed when he passed away. At 70, he realized that “… the worst thing I could do as a father is to pass away and leave my only heir, my daughter, without a list of things to do, people to contact and so forth.” So, in a binder he included the usual – his will, living will, durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Power of Attorney. But he also added:
- contact info for insurance companies and funeral arrangements;
- important passwords;
- list of friends and business contacts;
- scans of all active keys (home, car, safe deposit box, etc);
- list of credit card #s, all accounts (utility, bank, investment, etc); insurance policy #s, user IDs, retirement acct info, etc;
- value of collector’s items (or jewelry, art, etc); and,
- misc instructions (plant or pet care/disposition, etc).
Five years later, he’s keeping the binder up to date so that it’s current when needed. Although I’m still a couple decades shy of 70, I intend to put together a similar collection of info for my kids.