The executor of your estate has an important job to complete once you’re gone. However, that job can be made exponentially harder, or virtually impossible, if they are unable to locate the documents necessary to handle your final affairs.
Worse is when a person thinks they have included details about bank accounts, insurance policies, and other important documents in their estate plan…but that person ultimately fails to keep the list updated and things are unintentionally left out. The result is a drawn-out, expensive process that causes headaches for your executor and your beneficiaries – along with your lawyer, who’s billable hours will probably go through the roof tracking down policies and accounts.
So, what can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen to your executor and your family? Well, you can spend some time getting a good look at what assets, accounts, and policies you own outright and make a list for your executor on where to find the correct documents for each. We know that might sound a little overwhelming, which is why we’ve put together this helpful checklist of the most common documents an executor needs to administer an estate:
- Your Last Will and Testament or Pour-Over Will
- Your Revocable Living Trust, Irrevocable Living Trust, or any other asset protection planning trusts in your possession, including an ILIT or Medicaid SNT
- Copies of all insurance policies
- Real estate deeds
- Bank statements for all solely-held accounts
- Mutual fund information
- Certificates for stocks, bonds, and annuities
- Safe-deposit box information and key
- Retirement plans, 401(k) accounts, and IRAs
- Debt information, including credit cards, mortgages, and any other loans
This is just a quick checklist of common documents. To get a full idea of what you need to collect for your executor, you should meet with an experienced Florida probate attorney who can look at your current situation and make recommendations. One quick note: when you gather these documents, you should store them in a secure place and let the executor know how to track them down. Think about it – there’s no point putting your documents in a safe if you don’t tell your executor where they are and the safe’s combination.
For assistance with gathering documents for your executor, or to make sure that you have a solid plan in place to ensure that life is as easy as possible for your loved ones after you are gone, contact our office at (813) 438-8503 to set up a consultation with a Tampa probate lawyer.