A gift to your executor that costs you nothing
- Suggesting that we leave information for our executor that’s easily accessed off the top of our head or at our fingertips to save them a bunch of detective work.
My wife deserves the credit for most things.
She carries what’s been referred to as the “emotional load” of our existence. When looking that up I found another term that makes me feel even more useless: “mankeeping”.
This column was her idea. She didn’t write it, but she certainly did the mankeeping behind it.
My wife likes order.
No thanks to me, everything in our home is in its place. You should see our pantry and refrigerator, containing arrays of stacked and matching Tupperware.
She organizes our legal files the same way.
When it comes to probate applications, she has created systems to make order out of the chaos of collecting the information we need from the executor.
In a column series about “do it yourself” probate applications, I wrote about a fillable digital form she created to collect that information, offering it to those trying to make probate applications without a lawyer’s assistance.
She has now created another tool she’d like me to get into the hands of will-makers, making it easy for them to pass on the key bits of that information to help their executor.
The genius in the tool is that the smallest effort by the will-maker can save their executor a whole lot of detective work.
It’s because there is information that can be accessed “off the top of the head” by the will-maker but would take a bunch of work for the executor to track down.
For example, each of us knows our full legal name and the date and place of our birth.
We wouldn’t need to track down our birth certificate to give that information. But our executor likely would.
I also wouldn’t need to do genealogical research to tell you who my descendants are (children, grandchildren) and who my parents, siblings and their descendants are.
Nor would I need to dig through financial records to tell you the names of the banks and financial institutions I have accounts with.
I couldn’t list each account along with account numbers and balances, but I could certainly tell you where the accounts are held.
And if I can’t tell you off the top of my head whether I’ve named beneficiaries for my TFSA and RRSP that’s a sign that I need to get my affairs in order!
It would take very little effort to fill in the blanks of a form that prompts for this and a bunch of other information that I have immediate recall of or is at my fingertips.
That minimal effort on my part will be a kind gift to my executor.
E-mail me if you would like a copy of the digitally fillable (on your computer) form my wife created. If you’re not comfortable with digital forms, it can be printed and filled in by hand.
Even if you fill the form digitally, you might choose to print it out. My wife has gone the extra step of creating tab headings for a binder you could keep this form in, the binder including tabs for important papers (like your birth certificate), informal instructions you might have about articles (art, jewellery, etc.), letters or notes you might want passed on to loved ones, and business cards for folks your executor will need to deal with such as your investment advisor.
Please ensure that you let your executor know that this helpful document exists, whether hard copy or digital, and how to find it.
And it would be helpful to review and update the form annually because some of the information will change over time.
