Transcript:
Easan Arulanantham:
So this is a kind of a state planning question. If something were to happen to me, How does my family know where everything is and how to access any of my assets and benefits I might leave behind.
Tom Vaughan:
Okay, so this is actually really interesting, because this is something we run across. And I actually had conversations with another friend of mine who’s an advisor, where the widow comes in. And the biggest problem they’re having right now is just finding things. They don’t know where it is. I remember specifically a case with a lady who came in to see me for the first time and brought in a grocery bag filled with envelopes on opened, just different things that come in that look financial. And we sat there and open them up during the appointment, and there was all of these dividend checks in there. Back when they used to send you the check instead of deposited directly. You know, this was a while ago, we actually spent three years in that case trying to find the assets. And so that’s a really big deal. Theoretically, if somebody can’t find your assets, it can be sent back to the state. So if you have some bank account over there, and nobody knows about it, and you pass away, there’s some period of time that has to pass, but that money can actually be surrendered back to the state. And apparently, there is like billions of dollars that do get surrendered back to the state, which is kind of mind boggling. So the question is kind of a four question. So I want to make sure that doesn’t happen to my beneficiaries, correct? I mean, that’s what they’re asking. So I think it’s a great question, actually, it’s the right question to be asking, so that your beneficiaries Don’t end up like these other situations that I’ve seen, I have seen some really good systems within my clientele, where they will, you know, put things together in one file cabinet, or one file, cabinet drawer, whatever. And they make sure that their beneficiaries know, you know, hey, this is where I’m keeping everything. And I’ve got my accounts in here, or what have you. In today’s world, that could be electronic, right?
It doesn’t have to be super sophisticated, even up to date with the latest statements, I have another case right now that I’m dealing with, with a woman and her daughter, and it’s one of my clients, so they know where my stuff is, but then they keep getting these other issues coming in. And they don’t know what it is this actually money or not. So you know, what you do want to watch, obviously, in that case, is the mail and that person’s email address. But it would have been really nice if they would have had it in one spot and said, okay, here is where I have everything in case you need it. One of the things I always try to encourage people to do is to kind of put it into one folder electronically, so that all we need to know in the end is got this account, this account, this account, here it is here, it doesn’t need to be exact, you know, give me some account numbers. And then we can go out and try to figure out how to get it and get death certificates to that person, you know, what have you. So I think that’s the beginning spot, there’s much more sophisticated ways we have these vaults that you can put everything in so the beneficiaries can see the trust, can see your tax returns, can see the link, we can link in every single account you have into there. And you can give that beneficiary the password, right? So that they that’s all they have to do boom, password, everything’s there, it’s electronic, you can see values, you can see it count numbers. Some people don’t want to do that they’re afraid of putting all their stuff in one place. Everybody’s got a different way of doing it. But in essence, I think that’s one of the keys is just put it somewhere, let the people know where it is. That’s it. And so, you know, it’s not that difficult to do. But it does happen, where that goes awry. And your beneficiaries are spending a lot of time trying to find the hard earned money that you that you had put in there. So that’s just kind of how it goes.
Easan Arulanantham:
Yeah, and like, I know, some people have some, or some people have emotional issues with like having their children or their beneficiaries know how much money they have. Yeah, so just having, you know, generic account numbers. Were what institution is. They don’t have you, they don’t really need to know the specific value of the account. They just need to know where the account is where the money is.
Tom Vaughan:
Yeah. So as long as they get that information, and that’s then they can access all your assets. Yeah, they need to… Right. Know that. That’s actually the case I just talked about with this. The wife and the daughter. He was just it wasn’t hiding the money, but he didn’t, you know, he was afraid that she was going to spend too much if if the if she knew how much they actually had, so he kind of kept it secret. It’s an old style concept I predicted you’ll agree with but that’s exactly what happened. But at the same time, he easily could have had just a list of account numbers and institutions without dollar amounts, just that he kept up to date. One Word document, anything is simple. And it would have made it a lot easier because they’re literally mystified, you know, they’re getting these emails and they don’t know what it is. You know? Yeah, that’s a good point. Actually, that doesn’t have to be. You know, it. I would say most of the times, within couples, for example, there is only one person that really deals with all the money, not every time but a lot. And so, it’s very difficult to have complete communication of where everything is all the time anyway, you know, but again, just keep one simple document, something that shows a this is where things are going. And this is the count numbers and institutional names and you’re right, once we have that we can go out and, you know, we can prove that I’m Mrs. or Mr. So and so here’s the death certificate, and you know, that way we don’t so money doesn’t disappear