Estate Planning – A Personal Records Organizer

For most people, it is only once we hit retirement that we start thinking about estate planning. But what if something happens to you before you have had a chance to get everything planned out? Does your spouse know how to contact your employer to let them know you will no longer be coming in?

The first step is to document and organize your life. As a starting point, I’ve created a spreadsheet based upon a template provided by one of the insurance companies I deal with. In this spreadsheet, you record details of your life that your loved ones or Executor would need to deal with. Examples are bank accounts, credit cards, monthly bills, etc.

Second step is to put a reminder in your calendar to update the document on a regular basis. For most people an annual review would suffice.

Third step is to share the document with your loved ones or executor. As there are passwords stored in there, I would only share with those that have a high need to know and can be trusted.

I hope you find this spreadsheet useful in starting to organize.