Have you drawn an organizational chart for your business and your life?
If yes, does anyone else have a copy?
IE your lawyer, financial planner, accountant, executor, parent, sibling, child, anyone… anyone… anyone…
Why not?
because;
1. It’s all in your head, and your plan is the same as everyone’s – never get sick or die.
Problem solved.
Although no, actually…
Problem(s) created.
When Gen-X, my generation, starts to check out it’s going to be a gong-show (a Gen-X pop-culture reference).
A gong-show of the highest order, due to the complexity of our generations lives.
256 passwords, and counting.
2,356 emails in my (very tidy) inbox.
29,781 photos in my phone.
The digital damage is going to be massive compared to the 312 books the kids need to check between the pages of.
Back to reasons you have no detailed plan…
2. You’re too damn secretive for your own good.
Did you grandparents, or great-grandparents have a single password in their day-to-day lives?
Perhaps, if they were part of ‘La Resistance’ in WWII… otherwise, no… likely not.
Now you’ve a password to open an app that contains dozens, or like me hundreds of what?
Passwords!
If something happens to you, will anyone be able to assemble even just a basic picture of your finances, or how about access your photo’s, let alone have specific directions for handling your assets?
No matter whether your single, common-law, married, a thruple, or otherwise, there’re endless examples of people so secretive about their own financial affairs that they themselves forget about their own bank accounts.
In 2019 the Bank of Canada released $8.5 million in previously unclaimed money back to individuals who submitted claims.
This was less than 1% of the $888 million sitting unclaimed back in 2019.
The largest single unclaimed account? $800,000
No doubt there’re even larger, way larger, crypto balances that will never be claimed.
At least when it’s a bank account with a balance of $1,000+ the BOC holds the funds for 100 years. Time enough, one hopes, for someone to reno (or demo) grandma’s old house, find an old bank book hidden under a floorboard, and return it to you.
For Gen X though, it’ll be the crypto passwords that prove the Kryptonite of financial planning.
Written on a piece of paper left in which pair of pants again?
This and tossing your crypto wallet, aka hard drive, into the landfill.
Being a FIAT currency chump the most I’ve ever lost, or accidentally tossed away, was a wallet with about $800 bucks in it.
Unlike poor James Howell who accidently tossed away his digital-wallet containing 8,000 bitcoin.
That’s ~237 million USD today… oops.
Setting crypto concerns aside, and returning to the opening question; have you listed out on a single document all of your;
- Personal bank accounts
- Corporate bank accounts
- Investment accounts, including but not limited to TFSA, RRSP, RESP, RIF, & self-directed trading accounts.
- Disability policies
- Critical Illness policies
- Life insurance policies
- Real Estate holdings, not just owned but also any pre-sales under contract
- Details around collectibles
Why do collectors routinely buy cars, sports cards, comic books, records, baseball memorabilia, etc. for pennies on the dollar?
Because you’ve never explained to anyone verbally, or in writing, the true value of your stuff, or outlined the best way, and contacts, to liquidate it.
OK, perhaps you tried… but no your partner really wasn’t listening as you tried to explain the cultural value that would one day be assigned to the arguably infantile trinkets of paper, plastic, and fabric that we cling to as if somehow we might be transported back to a ‘simpler time’.
News flash, it’s not going to happen and it wasn’t a simpler time at all. All times are simple when you’re ten years old.
Anyways, add a trusted key contact to your document, someone to help the people left behind to fairly value and capitalize on your life’s work collecting those collectibles.
Here’s the thing about this exercise; it’s the essence of estate planning. It’s what you need to do in order to prepare an up to date will.
You already have a will right?
Congrats you’re the one! (The one in three)
Wait though; How old is it?
Been married, divorced, hit a common-law threshold since it was last written?
Had a child?
Opened a Corporation?
Bought a business, sold a business?
Etc.
Essentially a will is a living document that needs to be updated on average about every 3 years.
Maybe not every 3 years for the general population, but you’re not gen-pop.
You are operating on a different level.
Act accordingly.
2/3 CDN’s do not have a will.
They have no org chart, and their family will have no clue where anything is, or what it’s actually worth when they’re gone.
Don’t be in the majority on this point.
Get your act together, enlist the help of a trusted professional or two, ideally one a bit younger than you, and document not just your assets, but also your wishes.
For instance, my ‘celebration of death’ is going to be just that. A big-ass party held after I am gone.
Which, as I write this, has me wondering if I shouldn’t throw at least one test-drive of said big-ass party before I actually check out.
The ‘Last Day’ app suggests July 1, 2043 is well, my last day… so in theory I have some time, also that’s Canada day long weekend, convenient for out-of-towners and easy on the fireworks budget.
My point is, have some fun planning for the inevitable. Get creative with the exercise of writing your will.
Surprise a few people with specific gifts.
Gift the schoolyard bully of your youth ten sessions of anger mgmt therapy.
Send an ex on an all expenses paid trip for two to Bora-Bora. (You know the ex you owe that to)
Quite seriously though, my will stipulates that there be an all-expense paid event, for anyone who wishes to attend, held at the Whistler Fairmont, with two nights accommodations covered, an open bar, a kickass dinner & dancing event, etc.
There’ll be some minor hurdles to clear for attendees, but they’ll be fun ones.
So, here’s my ask of you on this fine summer day – please please please just for me…
Please…
Get your shit together.
Just start.
Start the list of what you have, where it is, who can assist with it.
Leave it at the top of your inbox.
Print a copy and stash it under your keyboard or in a safe deposit box… a box that someone knows exists!
List assets, accounts, and people who can properly direct your heirs.
And hey, ‘heirs’ may not mean family, maybe you haven’t started one yet, but do you want your assets to sit at the Bank Of Canada, or do you want them to go to your favourite charity?
Spell out what you want.
Just start.
Please.
And get your ass insured six ways from Sunday while your at it. Insured properly, because that ass of yours is worth millions.
Then document where that money is going.
Because again, having it sit in the BOC’s basement doesn’t help anyone at all.
So start!
Now.
DW