COVID 19 - Making The Most of Your Time At Home

​The Coronavirus pandemic has forced many individuals to quarantine and work from home. A productive way to spend the extra time you may now find in your schedule is to create an estate planning portfolio. By gathering all of your pertinent estate planning information into one location, you’ll make visits to your estate planning attorney, investment advisor, tax accountant, and insurance agent much easier. To help get you started, we’ve put together a guide to organize your estate planning portfolio.

SECTION A: CURRENT ESTATE PLANNING DOCUMENTS

• Copies of any currently existing estate planning documents, including any powers of attorney
for financial or medical, living will, HIPAA, Last Will and Testament and any trust documents.

SECTION B: ASSETS

Bank Accounts:
• Copies of your most recent statements for all checking, savings and money market accounts.
• Copies of certificates of deposit.

Investment and Mutual Fund Accounts:
• Copies of your most recent statements for all investment and mutual fund accounts.

Stock and Bond Certificates:
• Copies of all stock certificates.
• Copies of all bonds.

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​IRA Accounts and Retirement Policies:
• Copies of your most recent statements for all IRA accounts and retirement policies.

Life Insurance:
• Copies of the declaration pages of any life insurance policy you hold which would indicate the policy number, the death benefit and the name of the insured.

Pension Plans:
• Copies of the cover pages of any pension plan you hold which would indicate the policy number and the amount of the plan.

Annuities:
• Copies of the cover pages of any annuities you hold which would indicate the policy number, amount of the annuity and the name of the annuitant.

Business Interests:
• Information on any business interests owned, including the name of the business, type of business, name of the owner the interest is titled in, percentage of business owned, and value of interest.  This information can usually be found in the operating agreement/bylaws, articles of organization/incorporation and unit/stock certificates.

Real Estate and Mineral Interests:
• Copies of all deeds or other vesting documents, such as a journal entry of final settlement, showing how/when you acquired ownership of any property. Provide detailed information of any property you have subsequently sold, gifted or that you have retained an interest in. If you do not have access to deeds or other vesting documents, you will want to provide any possible information needed to acquire said documents, including: the recording date of the property/mineral transfer, county and state where the property/minerals are located, Grantee and Grantor names, Decedent’s name and year of death, county and state where the Decedent lived at the time of their death. If you do not know this information a good place to begin is by examining copies of your tax statements. The Register of Deeds in the county where the property is located can also be a good resource.
• If the property has producing minerals, copies of the most recent statement/check stub from the producer.

Wind Energy Interests:
• Copies of the most recent statement/check stub from the producer.

Accounts Receivable/Payable:
• Copies of any promissory notes payable to you or from you, as well as the contact information of the payee/payor.

Capital Credits:
• Contact information for any cooperative (electrical, communications, agricultural) in which you own capital credits.

Funeral Plans:
• Copies of any prepaid funeral contracts or agreements.

​Originals of these documents should be kept in a fire-proof location, such as a bank box or home safe. You should review your portfolio annually to ensure you have the most updated asset information included.

For more information on the estate planning process, please contact ​Davis & McCann, P. A., Dodge City, KS. We are members of Wealth Counsel, a national consortium of Estate Planning Attorneys and focus our practice on providing clients with the best legal advice on estate planning, Medicaid and Long-term Care Planning, Business Formation, Family Business/Small Business Succession Planning, Probate, Trust Administration, Real Estate Transactions, and related matters.