A Legal and Financial Pre-Vacation Checklist

May 13, 2015| BY: Wade Law Offices

Family vacations tend to dominate the summer months. Friends and relatives say nothing is quite as stressful as planning and packing for the long-awaited warm weather holiday. As the mercury climbs, your interest in dealing with your legal and financial matters may decline. Lets change that trend.

The Summertime Blues

Once school is out, we tend to see a slowdown in new clients who are contemplating estate planning. Parents are taking kids on vacation; grandparents retreat to summer hideaways to escape the heat. The pace of life simply slows down.

One of the more stressful pre-vacation conversations among clients with families deals with the status of their estate and life insurance plans. Are they current? The conversation usually goes, Lets hope that nothing happens, and well deal with it when we get back.

When the family does get back, however, the topic falls off the to-do list until next summers hiatus.

A Pre-Departure Checklist

Over the years, weve picked up some ideas that you might want to incorporate into a legal and financial pre-vacation checklist in order to give you that added peace of mind as you embark on your vacation(s).

Some ideas to incorporate into your checklist can include the following:

Tell your trustee or executor where all of your important documents are located, and make sure he has access to them. For example, if you keep your important papers in a safety deposit box or safe, make sure you leave him the key or combination.

• Review your life insurance policies. Do you have enough coverage?
• Double-check the beneficiary designations on life insurance, retirement plans and annuities. Are they coordinated with your estate plan? (In our experience, most are not.)
• Is your living will and healthcare power of attorney up-to-date with the HIPAA Act?
• Has anything changed that your advisors need to know about before you leave town?

A Guilt-Free Summer Vacation

For those that understand these important issues and want to do some estate planning before they leave town, dont worry. Feel free to call us. Once we know your timeline, we can get the work done before you go.

Theres nothing like leaving for that summer vacation free from guilt and worry.