Having recently attended a funeral for a good friend of mine, I was reminded of the problems a death can create, aside from the actual act of dying. It appeared that, although he had organised a funeral plan, he had not made it clear where his Will was. Even if the Will was found, most Wills are written to distribute unspecified assets. An heir needs to know what assets there are before claiming anything. A draw full of files might appear organised but much of the content may be out of date or even completely irrelevant.
Who is the household´s financial controller?
In my experience, when dealing with couples, one party, normally the husband, deals with all things financial. This has resulted in many widows having a hard time with finances on the death of the husband. The thought of picking a phone up to contact their bank is daunting enough. Forgetting one of the six security questions is fatal. Logging into the online banking system is totally out of the question, even if they knew what the user ID and password were.
What can you do?
It is a really good idea to make a list, with company name and reference number, of all the bank accounts, insurance policies, investments (insurance bonds/unit trusts/shares), premium bonds, and anything else which would make life easier for those looking after your affairs on your demise. Here is a link which illustrates just how much information could be required. Are you confident someone will easily be able to put all of this together?
How can we help?
Many years ago, I was a “Man from the major UK insurance company”. I still tend to work on the home service principle. Meeting people in their homes has always been more attractive to me as paperwork will often be to hand. There is also the possibility of a cup of tea and a digestive. There have been times when I have found investments that people were unaware of and also helped to cull the collection of paperwork, creating more storage space, and possibly room for a new sofa (from the proceeds of the policy they didn´t know about). Obviously, I do not wish to major in house clearance but I am happy to help people organise their paperwork, review existing investments and pensions, and make life easier for those with the task of dealing with everything later. Hopefully much later.
Fun financial fact
According to several reports, in 2012, in the USA, a 1 cent coin cost 2.4 cents to make. By 2016, the cost had reduced to 1.5 cents. Making cents still does not seem to be making sense.
Contact John Hayward at john.hayward@spectrum-ifa.com or call/WhatsApp (+34) 618 204 731
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