Right now, you’re the person who knows where everything is. The will is in the desk. The deed is in a folder somewhere. The life insurance statement comes in the mail once a year. The pension login is on a sticky note.
That works fine for you. The trouble starts when the time comes and someone else has to find all of it.
The “six places” problem
Most families we meet have their paperwork in about six places: a filing cabinet, a lockbox at the bank, a kitchen drawer, an old employer’s website, an email inbox and someone’s memory. None of it is wrong. It’s just scattered.
When a family has to put it back together after a loss, they’re doing it during the hardest weeks of their lives, often without knowing what they’re looking for. They don’t know there’s a second life insurance policy from an old job. They don’t know which bank holds the CD. They call the wrong office three times.
The Assist Program fixes that now, while you can answer the questions yourself.
The sit-down
We meet with you, in person in Acworth or by phone, for an unhurried conversation about what you have and where it is. Your adult children are welcome to join. Many families find it’s the easiest way to start a conversation nobody knew how to begin.
What to bring (whatever you have; don’t worry if something’s missing):
- Any will, trust or power of attorney, even an old one
- Your advance directive for health care, if you have one
- The deed to your home and any other real estate
- Vehicle titles
- Life insurance policies and recent policy statements
- A list of your bank, retirement and other financial accounts
- Pension, Social Security and VA benefit letters
- Any funeral pre-planning paperwork
You don’t need to sort it first. That’s our job.
About your documents and privacy: we review documents in person or through a secure upload your advisor provides. We never ask you to send documents by email or through the website form, and the request-a-call form on this site asks for nothing sensitive.
The beneficiary audit
This is the part of the sit-down that matters most, and the part most people have never thought about.
Retirement accounts, like a 401(k) or IRA, and life insurance don’t follow your will. They go to whoever is named on the beneficiary form on file with the plan or the insurance company. If that form is out of date, the old form wins, no matter what your will says.
Here’s the example we see most. A man names his wife as beneficiary on his 401(k) at work. Years later they divorce, he remarries, and he writes a will leaving everything to his new wife and children. He never updates the 401(k) form. When the time comes, the plan generally pays his ex-wife. Courts have upheld exactly that result, because for employer retirement plans the beneficiary form controls.
The same thing happens with a life insurance policy that still names a parent who has passed, or a child who was a baby when the policy was written and is now 40, or “my estate,” which can send the money through probate.
So we go through each account and policy with you and confirm who is named, primary and backup. Where something needs changing, we show you how to request the update from the plan or the carrier. We don’t advise you on how your retirement accounts are managed; we make sure they’re listed and the names on them are current.
The inventory, and the one page your family gets
From the sit-down, we build an inventory of your accounts, pensions, policies, benefits and property, and where each document lives. That turns into one page your family can act on: what exists, where it is, who to call and what each office will need.
Your arrangements and your Assist Program file are kept on file together at Leaf, so when the time comes your family doesn’t have to reconstruct anything. They get a dedicated Family Care Advisor who already has the list. See what happens after a loss.
Want to start on your own first? Download our one-page estate checklist.
What if a document is missing?
Sometimes the sit-down turns up a gap: no will, a power of attorney from 20 years ago, or no advance directive for health care. That’s common, and it’s fixable.
We help you get it done with an attorney. The documents are prepared by an independent Georgia-licensed estate attorney, who advises you on which ones fit. We keep the signed copies in your file. Read wills, trusts and power of attorney to see what most Georgia families need.
The other two pieces
Getting organized is one part of planning ahead. The other two are the arrangements themselves and how they’ll be paid for.
If you haven’t made arrangements yet, Leaf Cremation pre-planning lets you decide the details now. And if you’re wondering how it will be paid for, burial insurance is a small whole life insurance policy that pays your family in days.
Decide now, so your family doesn’t have to. Request a call and check “Getting my documents and accounts organized.”