Help Your Future Heirs Find Your Assets

(Newswire.net — November 8, 2018) Coral Springs, Florida — No one likes to think about what will happen when they die. But if you want to best protect your family, it is crucial that you take certain steps so your heirs can properly inherit and, especially important these days, locate everything you own.

Uncovering all of a deceased person’s assets has become more difficult in recent years, thanks to the internet,” says Gary M. Landau, a longtime Florida probate attorney located in Coral Springs, Fla. Less than a decade ago, the best advice a probate attorney would offer after someone passed away was for the heirs to start checking the deceased person’s mail. “Over the course of a month, statements from all the accounts where the person kept their assets would be delivered, so we would know how much the person had and where it was deposited,” Landau says.

But today, most banks, stock brokers, insurance policies, and other accounts where you keep your money send statements by email. It has therefore become more challenging to corral all of the deceased person’s money.

The job of finding these assets in Florida typically falls to the personal representative (a position known as an executor in some other states), who has been named to that position in the person’s will. In a probate administration, the PR is charged by the court with satisfying all steps needed to identify and distribute the person’s assets according to the will (or, if there is no will, according to state statute).

Even with the current shift to emailed statements, there are ways you can make it easier for your future personal representative to locate your accounts. Asking your own parents to follow this advice can also make it easier for you. 

Landau offers these suggestions to all of his Florida clients:

Make a physical list. Write down every account where you have money, including the name of the institution, your account number, and the approximate amount you have as of the date you make the list. This includes things like banks and brokerages, but also more easily overlooked assets like health savings accounts, college-savings accounts, or accounts for your side businesses such as on Etsy. Review this list annually to ensure it is up-to-date. Then store the list in a home safe (not a bank safe-deposit box, which typically can’t be accessed after a death). If no one in your family has your safe’s code, ask your attorney to store this list alongside your original will. Just be sure to let someone know where it can be found.

Ask for annual paper statements. Even if you get your monthly statements by mail, you can often request that your annual, or in some cases quarterly, statements arrive by mail. This will help ensure that any account you open after making your last list doesn’t fall through the cracks because your relatives can find them by checking your mail. 

Document your passwords. The easiest way for your heirs to discover how much money you have in each of your accounts is for them to access the accounts online after you are gone. To do this, it helps for them to have access to your passwords. “Some people make a master password list and store it in the same home safe as their other papers. Others make one list of user IDs and a separate list of passwords, giving each list to a different person; the lists can then be joined when it is needed,” Landau says. You can also use an online password generator for all of your accounts, so your heirs will need only that one password later. 

Record recurrent expenses. Estate expenses can continue to accrue, knocking down the value of the estate, because of credit card accounts the heirs are not aware of, which continually add late-pay fees. Similarly, services that bill by automatic payment may not be closed. Keep a physical list of any product or service that you pay automatically, so the personal representative can stop them after you are gone. Because many people pay their credit card bills online, consider photocopying all of your credit cards (don’t snap a photo on your phone; photos stored on the cloud are too easily hacked) and putting that in the same home safe.

Aside from documenting your valuable, the best way to ensure that your heirs are properly protected is to work with a wills and trusts/probate attorney to create all necessary documents. These include your will, living will, healthcare power of attorney, and any others relevant to your particular situation. You should also keep your beneficiary forms up to date for bank accounts, retirement plans, insurance policies, brokerage accounts, and the like. That money can bypass the probate process and go immediately to the person you have designated.

After watching his probate clients agonize over the choices they had to make for their relatives’ care, Landau also believes it is important for people to consider and communicate how they want to die. “Most Americans don’t give that enough thought—leaving their loved ones to figure out what you might have wanted in your last months and days,” he says. The Law Office of Gary M. Landau has worked with hospice experts to create the free document My Last Emotional Wishes. This form does not replace a will or living will and is not a legally binding document. But it can offer your family peace of mind that they are acting as you would want them to before and after you pass away. Download this free form at the bottom of the home page of the law firm’s website, GaryLandau.com.

Probate Attorney Coral Springs

Gary M. Landau has more than 25 years of experience as a probate, wills and trusts, and real estate lawyer in Florida. He is also a member of the New York State bar. Over the years, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Broward County Bar Association, and as the Chair of the Real Property section of the Broward County Bar Association.