Documenting and Explaining Your Estate to your Spouse

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable summer. Mine was pretty good except for the 5mm kidney stone that decided to come on down in mid-July and took 12 days to finally pass ☹. But as they say, all things shall pass and once the stone did, I had an enjoyable time catching up with family, friends and golf and learning a few new barbeque recipes courtesy of YouTube.

Over the years, I have posted numerous times about “Stress Testing your Finances” and recommended that you document and review your estate with your spouse (and possibly executors). I emphasized in these blog posts that you do not want to pass away without leaving your spouse a listing of your financial assets and a roadmap of how to deal with estate matters. When your healthy and of sound mind, you need to assist and prepare your spouse to deal with and navigate your estate, by clarifying and discussing various financial issues and making introductions to your advisors, amongst other estate matters. To be clear, each spouse should have a reciprocal exchange.

I do not want to regurgitate my prior blog posts, so at the bottom of this post, I will link three of the more pertinent posts I have written should you wish to read or re-read them again. Today, I will talk about explaining the details of your estate to your spouse and future steps they may need to settle your estate.

Since 2012 when I first wrote on this topic, I have taken my own advice and provided my wife with a summary document I update as necessary with various financial information, passwords and anything else I think would help her settle my estate with the least amount of stress. This document is kept in our safety deposit box. I know other people keep it in the cloud, where they have a secure personal locker. Where you keep the document does not matter, the key is competing the document.

I think our household is representative of some if not many Canadian households, where most financial matters are generally taken care of by the “financial oriented” spouse (as opposed to sharing the financial duties), especially where the other spouse does not work in a financial oriented capacity. In these households, financial communication can sometimes be lacking.

This year, based on various questions my wife has asked me, from how certain payments would continue if I passed away, to what happens to travel points, to whom would prepare her taxes etc. I realized I am one of those “financial spouses” who has not sufficiently explained what my estate summary means to my wife in practical terms beyond the documentation I have provided.

Given my experience with my wife, I decided to delve into greater detail (there will be tons of detail) in my next post the first week of October, on the “explaining” and “future steps” required to settle your estate. Until then, here are the prior links on this topic I noted earlier:

The Blunt Bean Counter: Stress Testing Your Finances and Your Death - The Comprehensive Test

The Blunt Bean Counter: Just Do It – Write Your Financial Story! What the Heck are You Waiting For?
 

Here is also a link to an Estate Organizer (note the document cannot be amended)

This site provides general information on various tax issues and other matters. The information is not intended to constitute professional advice and may not be appropriate for a specific individual or fact situation. It is written by the author solely in their personal capacity and cannot be attributed to the accounting firm with which they are affiliated. It is not intended to constitute professional advice, and neither the author nor the firm with which the author is associated shall accept any liability in respect of any reliance on the information contained herein. Readers should always consult with their professional advisors in respect of their particular situation. Please note the blog post is time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation or law.

BNN TV Interview & Garbage Lids are Gold

Last week I was interviewed by Kim Parlee, Vice-President of TD Wealth Management and the host of Money Talk on BNN. The topic was Stress Testing your Spouse's Financial Readiness if you were to Die Suddenly. Even with tons of make-up, I still seem to have a face made for blogging. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the interview and Kim was very welcoming. My only regret is that the time allotted to a boring accountant discussing a morbid topic was somewhat restricted.

Consequently, I did not get to fully discuss two important parts of any financial stress test for spouses. The first, stress testing your insurance policies (you need to have a one or two page listing of every policy you have, the policy number, type of insurance, amount of insurance and broker contact number). I also only got to briefly discuss the key component of stress testing, the preparation of an all-inclusive checklist.

If you have not read my original blog post on stress testing your death or my second all-encompassing stress test for both your current finances and your death, I urge you to do so. If you have read these posts, please follow up – it is one of the most selfless things you can do for your spouse or significant other.

Garbage Can Lids, aka Gold on my Street

 

On a totally unrelated topic, a few months ago when I came home from work, I got out of my car to take in the blue and green bins and the garbage cans. I noticed that one of my garbage can lids was missing. I uttered one or two expletives when I could not find the lid, but did not give it much thought as I figured it blew away. I was however; not very happy when I found out my local Canadian Tire did not sell lids separately.

I was none too pleased when I came home last month and realized a second garbage can lid was missing. This time several expletives came forth from my mouth as I came to the conclusion that my lids were being stolen. Who the heck steals garbage can lids from their neighbours?

Two weeks later on garbage day, I intended to scan the neighbourhood to see if someone had a similar lid on their garbage (my lid had no street number on it, but it did have a broken handle on one side, which made it distinguishable). To my surprise, only 10% or so of the garbage cans appeared to have lids. Either everyone’s lids were being stolen, or people were smart enough not to use their lid on garbage day and to only use their lids to keep their garbage covered during the week. What a surprising revelation; garbage can lids were like gold in my neighbourhood.

My garbage lid saga continued, when two weeks ago I came out to get the morning newspaper and was stunned to spot a lid of the same make as my two lost lids at the end of my driveway. The lid thief must have felt guilty or found their original lid and returned mine. Total garbage lid craziness.

I promptly took the lid into my house and spray-painted my house number on it in fluorescent orange, to hopefully prevent someone from taking it again in the future.


The moral of this blog post? The next time you need to barter for goods, use your garbage can lid – as on my street, one man’s trash lid, is another man’s treasure.