Episode Details

A client was telling me a story about how the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a business he used to own passed away unexpectantly. Of course, it was a very sad event both personally and professionally. But an unexpected additional consequence was that the business was locked out of internet banking. The CFO had many important passwords committed to memory (for security). The business had to pay staff the week following his death without any access to banking! This taught my client a very important personal lesson. That is, make sure your loved ones are looked after in the event of your unexpected demise. Don’t leave them in the dark!

Here are a few things you must organise.

Passwords galore!

Its ridiculous how many passwords we have these days – almost too many to keep track of. If your spouse or loved ones don’t have ready access to your passwords, it can be very frustrating and stressful – at a time where additional and avoidable stress is definitely unwanted. You need to make a list of important passwords, including:

There are password apps you can use or a simple password protected Excel spreadsheet does the trick. Save the file in Dropbox (or similar) and share it with your spouse (or executor/s). This is simple to do and will avoid a lot of unnecessary stress.

Summary of assets and liabilities

It is important to have an up-to-date summary of all your assets and liabilities. This will make it easier for your executor/s to ascertain what assets you have, their value and what immediate actions need to be taken, if any. It is also useful if you have a summary of regular financial commitments such as loan repayments to ensure these are met on time. This will help your executor get on top of everything. Perhaps you can include this information in the password-protected Excel file mentioned above.

List of personal risk insurances

You should also maintain a list of personal risk insurances such as income protection, life and total & permanent disability insurances. You need to note policy numbers, sum insures and insurer. This will be important because if you have an accident, your partner/spouse may be able to lodge a claim on your behalf.

Who to contact list?

Your spouse or loved ones will need to know who to speak to for help. Therefore, keep a list of any trusted advisors including a description of what they do for you and when to contact them, including:

Your investment strategy and what steps to take

Sharing your investment strategy with your spouse and loved ones is very important as it will ensure they have a clear picture of what steps to take. They should know exactly what to do if you pass away (e.g. sell assets, repay loans, invest insurance proceeds, etc.) and what to do to have a safe retirement. They should also know who to speak to and when.

This will obviously be a very stressful and emotionally painful time for them, so its best if you can ensure they don’t have any financial worries (or at least less worries). Communicating this important information will ensure they aren’t left in the dark and don’t need to worry about the future.

Each spouse MUST understand their