How to share financial roadmap with family ?

[Katoslake]

I’ve been thinking about exactly how detailed to be when it comes to sharing account numbers and passwords with spouse and kids, and in what format.
Spouse is 100% beneficiary with kids being next in line equally. Children (23, 20, 16)

Do I just make a list of everything and hope it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands ?
Do I just list financial institutions with phone numbers and let beneficiaries go through the vetting process ?
Do we just give everyone in the family the number for our estate attorney ?
All of the above ?

I’ve seen situations where accounts, insurance policies etc went undiscovered.
Just want to make sure everyone finds/gets everything without too much trouble should I be the first to go.

Thanks for any advice

 

[HI Bill]

FWIW, I wouldn't share account numbers or passwords, until such time as you need to implement a financial power of attorney for yourself. Many of us on this forum maintain a 'cheat sheet' listing financial institutions where accounts are held, and a 'checklist' of items your spouse will need to take care of when the time comes, including insurance policies, bill payment info, etc.

In the latter years of my mom's life, she granted me financial POA, and the bank added me (as joint owner) to her savings and checking accounts so I could pay the bills for her. Account details for accounts where you have listed beneficiaries don't need to be divulged in detail (just say, I have XWZ types of accounts at this institution. Your survivor/beneficiary will need to provide a death certificate, and verify identity, but it's not really that hard to change them over. Best wishes!

 

[PandaBear]

I have a spreadsheet started with different tabs. One has the basics, such as the location of an account and contact info (no account numbers), life insurance companies, pension contact info, etc. I have a column for notes and it includes the last date I updated the info on each row and misc comments. What I have done is printed it out and attached it to out trust paperwork. My plan is to try and update the list yearly.

 

[donheff]

I have a written document that I shared with DW and the kids that lists all assets, explains our investment strategy, what to do on death or incompetence, etc. It explains how to get the passwords in such a way that they could figure it out but doesn't list them.

 

[pb4uski]

You could password protect the document and then give the password for the document to your loved ones who will need it.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

If you use LastPass, they allow you to set emergency contacts, who can request access to your passwords in case you are incapacitated. You get a notice when they do, and you determine how long you have to deny that access as a backup safety measure.

Before LastPass, I used a standalone program called Password Tracker that encrypted and saved my passwords, and transferred the encrypted file between computers every time I updated it. I kept a printout of the passwords in our safe. The list included the websites, so from that they could have figured out where the accounts were.

This is another benefit to the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) method of financial management. My mother had many small accounts across at least 4 or 5 brokerages, which I guess she thought was a form of diversification. It was a pain to close her estate. My father had everything in Fidelity, except for Citibank checking and savings accounts to manage spending money, and all the non-retirement accounts were TOD or POD to me. I've already put tertiary beneficiaries on all my accounts, just in case, but they're all at 2 institutions, one for banking & insurance, and one for investments.

 

[Souschef]

When we had our estate plan done, it was put into a 3 ring binder. I printed out all the holdings with account numbers, financial institution names, addresses, and phone numbers on one sheet, I printed out all our passwords on another, and put them in the front of the binder.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I have written up a document that includes all of my financial matters. I list the type of account, the holder of the account (brokerage company, bank, etc.), the account number and the phone number to call the company. I do not supply username and passwords to my accounts. If I die, they should be contacting the companies directly to start the process of properly liquidating the accounts.

I include a "summary page" of the account balances that I update every few months. So it won't be exact upon my death, but it will help my executor understand the magnitude being discussed.

In my case, I have no spouse or children, but I have asked my most responsible niece to be my executor. I am rewarding her for her work by allocating her a larger share of my inheritance (she knows this in advance). I have shown her the document and walked her through the kind of information that it contains but I didn't share the account balances with her at that time. I told her where to find the document (it's in a labeled binder in my office with a copy in my safe deposit box at the bank) should something happen to me. The binder also contains my will, POA and Healthcare POA documents. She's smart. She'll figure it out from there. If she needs help, I've referred her to the attorney that wrote up the estate documents.

 

[disneysteve]

My wife knows/has access to everything. I can't imagine not sharing every detail with her whether she is the beneficiary or not.


I have a typed list of every single account we have listing the company, the website, the type of account, the account number, the user ID and password. Attached to that list is a copy of our spreadsheet showing how much is in each of those accounts. I change out that spreadsheet copy every few months and update the account listing as needed. All of that is stored in our lock box.

 

[Markola]

My proactive, 81 y.o. mother has everything organized for family in a file box in a closet. She took pictures of the file box and sent it to us all so that we know where to look.

My DF’s financial road map has always amounted to: “work/spend”, which he still does at 81! At least he managed to get a will together and sent that to my brother and me.

 

[JRon]

We sat down with our kids and went over everything with them. Our son, who is our financial POA, and I discuss financial items all the time so he is somewhat up to date on our finances. I do keep a spreadsheet with all of our accounts and have given both him and our SIL the password to our LastPass account, our tablets, and phones so they can access them if needed.

 

[Bamaman]

All my financial information is with our wills, and it's locked up in a heavy safe at my home. The information has to be updated from time to time, as do our wills.

My wife knows the combo of the safe. Our daughter has a list of my passwords, and she has a combination to the safe as secondary executor in case something happens to my wife.

 

[RunningBum]

I have all of my accounts listed with account numbers on paper in my lock box. I showed my son where it is, what's in there, and where the key is.

I change my PWs from time to time so I don't list them. He shouldn't be accessing the accounts that way if I'm dead, but he does have POA if needed for medical reasons. Maybe I should leave my gmail account PW so he could do PW resets on other accounts if needed.

 

[disneysteve]

The reason I include the passwords on my list is because everything except my retirement accounts is joint with my wife so she should know how to access everything if I die. They are her accounts too.

 

[RunningBum]

The reason I include the passwords on my list is because everything except my retirement accounts is joint with my wife so she should know how to access everything if I die. They are her accounts too.

That makes total sense.

 

[MarieIG]

I’ve been thinking about exactly how detailed to be when it comes to sharing account numbers and passwords with spouse and kids, and in what format.
Spouse is 100% beneficiary with kids being next in line equally. Children (23, 20, 16)

Do I just make a list of everything and hope it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands ?
Do I just list financial institutions with phone numbers and let beneficiaries go through the vetting process ?
Do we just give everyone in the family the number for our estate attorney ?
All of the above ?

I’ve seen situations where accounts, insurance policies etc went undiscovered.
Just want to make sure everyone finds/gets everything without too much trouble should I be the first to go.

Thanks for any advice

Kiddos are still young. I'd start with educating the spouse, financially, to the extent not done. You can give the kiddos the attorneys' number.

This can be reassessed when you and the kiddos are older.

 

[Katoslake]

The reason I include the passwords on my list is because everything except my retirement accounts is joint with my wife so she should know how to access everything if I die. They are her accounts too.

I agree. My wife and I are joint owners of most accounts, hence she can access. 401k’s can’t be joint, though they are shared legally. What someone knows and is aware of without stress can be forgotten under duress. I feel that more than just my spouse should know where to find everything given a minor child. Having everything together, including passwords concerns me. I like the advice given by many on this thread to inform appropriate people but to be cautious with total transparent disclosure in one document.
Thanks for all the comments and advice ! It’s not the happiest of topics, but important.