Second, think of
the persons and
companies that
provide services
to you.
Pets. Birds, reptiles and other exotic
pets can outlive you, so provide names
of persons you trust to assist with your
animals. Create a list of people who
are familiar with your pet and who
would be able to take your pet temporarily or permanently. Pet care plans
should include type of food, feeding
amounts and times, past care records,
veterinarian contact information, and
a list of people or facilities that can
care for the pet on a daily, weekly
and long-term basis. In our case, my
mother took over cat care, and I started walking the dog. When Kathy
returned from hospital, we were able
to place both the cat and dog with
neighbors until her immune counts
increased to an acceptable level.
Back-up systems. Two days after
Kathy’s diagnosis, the power source
to my computer died. I had back-up
computers, data and systems, but I
was in no position to think about how
to restore my system, and my computer guy was two days away from
addressing my needs. Emails, payroll,
end-of-month bills, everything came
to a grinding halt. I spent the two
days running my practice from my
cellphone until my system was running. Figure out and test your back-up systems at home and at work
before you need them. Redundancy is
fantastic, but you need to learn the
restoration process so you can easily
implement it during an emergency.
Passwords. You would not believe how
many passwords you and your spouse
use during the day for home, school and
business accounts. All total, there are 27
different passwords used by our house-
hold, and this does not include my busi-
ness, all resetting on a different 3-, 6- or
12-month schedule. Whether it be
online or in hard copy, your successors
are going to need to get access to your
online accounts. We have started using a
spreadsheet with account titles and
hand-written passwords on it. This way
we can easily keep track and change
passwords as necessary. Social media
accounts (and their passwords) are a new
phenomenon that must be addressed
upon death or disability; in some cases
temporary posts should be prepared in
case of death or disability.
Just after Thanksgiving I packed up
Kathy’s unread books and magazines and
unused weights and wheeled her out of the
hospital. She could barely walk and was
unable to care for herself. After one month
in the hospital, we were headed home to
rebuild her strength and start over again.
Her hair and weight loss had no effect on
me; when I looked at her, I saw her fighting green eyes and nothing else.
We spent most of December researching alternative treatments, the first time I
was able to get my arms around the disease, its effects and prognosis. We flew her
to MD Andersen in Houston for more
tests and a second opinion. We talked with
every nationally recognized leukemia specialist in the country. The more information we gathered, the more we understood
the odds were against us.
After a quiet Christmas at home, Kathy
returned to the hospital for her second
round of chemotherapy on December 26.
Soon thereafter, I had my second major
meltdown. I searched for our checkbook
to reimburse my brother-in-law for some
purchases and after finally finding it I could
not figure out whether there was enough
cash in the account to cover the check.
Some bills were paid electronically, some
charged to our credit card, and others
invoiced to us. Anything that was auto-
matically paid was never logged in the
checkbook, so it was difficult at any given
time to balance the account without
reviewing online records. Some bills came
in the mail; others were delivered to
Kathy’s email, which was rendered unus-
able due to so many incoming emails.
Kathy was the only person who had the
access information for the power company,
the cable company and essentially every
other service that came to the house.
Kathy also has a unique method for bal-
ancing the checkbook—check register on
the left side of the desk and unopened
bank statements on the right. Clearly, that
system wasn’t going to work for me. I
spent the weekend reviewing old bank
statements and online records trying to
figure out what had been paid and what
needed to be paid.
Financial roadmap. I’ve advocated for
a financial roadmap so successors will
have a starting point to locate financial resources. Without that, trustees
and personal representatives must
comb through intermittent statements and tax returns, which can lead
to stress, delays in administration,
and, worse, assets being overlooked.
The roadmaps should include lists
of all assets, liabilities and insurance
policies. Asset lists should include the
contact information for brokers or
other contacts with knowledge of
each asset. Closely-held businesses
should have their own succession
plans, but each owner should also
have its resources identified in
advance. It is helpful to have a list of
trusted advisers available for special
assets, such as art, antiques or other
3
months
Recommendation:
Create a
financial plan
We talked with nationally recognized
leukemia specialists. The more information
we gathered, the more we understood the
odds were against us. EMERGENCY ESTATE PLAN
