10 reasons to make the New Year’s Resolution no one ever has on their list:
Organize your legal and financial papers!
A Guide to Navigating Retirement identifies the need to organize your financial and legal papers as a task of the highest importance. The Guide also identifies other tasks that can contribute to your financial security, enhance your quality of life, protect your family in crisis and cement your legacy—all of which first require this simple task of organization.
Contact me if you need a copy of the Guide at no cost.
- You can “keep” this resolution with little effort—certainly with much, much less effort than your resolve to diet and exercise will entail.
- Keeping this resolution will bring benefits disproportionately greater than the effort required.
- You might discover a long-forgotten investment or an account.
- You can weed out old correspondence and documents no longer of importance.
- You can perform this task leisurely before there is a crisis when documents are urgently needed.
- Spare someone else from performing this task who is unfamiliar with your investments and legal situation.
- You could uncover some mistakes in account registrations or beneficiary designations—which when corrected will leave those assets to the people you prefer to receive them.
- Retirement income and tax reduction planning can be undertaken with greater accuracy and benefit.
- Knowing the assets you own is necessary for estate planning that could potentially reduce your estate tax liability.
- Having your legal and financial affairs in order during crisis is another way for you to tell your family how much you love them.