Most of us are very good at organising the things we deal with every day. We know where our bank accounts are, who insures the house, where the business records are kept and who needs to be paid.
The difficulty is that much of this information is **in our heads**.
If something happened to you tomorrow, would your family know where to start?
That is the simple idea behind putting together your own **My Estate Kit**: one organised place containing the important information your family, executor or professional advisers may need if you become seriously ill or die.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the biggest benefit is simply **having everything in one place**.
I came across and purchased a ready made Estate Kit last week,a fill in the blanks one last week. Just to have something right. I have no conflict of interest but its on this link if you want to check it out!
What should be in an Estate Kit?
Think of it as a roadmap for the people who may someday have to look after your affairs.
It could record:
- Your will and where the original is kept
- Your solicitor, accountant and financial adviser’s details
- Bank and credit union accounts
- Savings and investments
- Pension and life assurance policies
- Details of your home, land and other properties
- Mortgages and other loans
- Insurance policies
- Business interests
- Important online and digital accounts
- Regular household bills and subscriptions
- Important documents and certificates
- Details of assets that family members might otherwise know nothing about
- Your preferred funeral arrangements and wishes
- The people who should be contacted if something happens to you
You don’t necessarily need to keep every original document in the kit. Often, knowing **what exists and where to find it** is just as important.
Particularly important if you own a business
If you run your own business, having your affairs organised is even more important.
Ask yourself a simple question: **if I wasn’t here on Monday morning, could somebody else work out what needed to be done?**
Your family may suddenly need to understand who owns the business, who has access to its records, where its bank accounts are held, who the key employees and customers are, what bills need to be paid and who your accountant, solicitor and other advisers are.
Good preparation can make an enormous difference.
It also gives you an opportunity, while you’re fit and well, to think about what you actually want to happen to the business. Should it pass to a family member? Should it be sold? Is there somebody who could temporarily run it? Are there tax or succession issues that should be dealt with now rather than later?
These conversations are much easier to have **while you are alive and able to make the decisions yourself**.
Property, land and the family home
Property can often be one of the most complicated parts of an estate.
You may own a family home, farmland, a rental property, a holiday home or property jointly with somebody else.
Rather than leaving your family to piece everything together afterwards, your Estate Kit can record what you own, where the deeds are held, whether there is a mortgage, how the property is owned and who your professional advisers are.
More importantly, putting the information together can highlight questions that should be addressed now.
For example, you may intend to hand a property or farm to a son or daughter eventually. There may be good reasons to do that during your lifetime rather than through your estate. Equally, there may be very good reasons **not** to transfer it yet.
Tax, Capital Acquisitions Tax, Capital Gains Tax, stamp duty, succession and your own financial security can all come into the decision.
The important thing is to make a considered decision rather than leaving the question unanswered.
Your funeral and personal wishes
An Estate Kit isn’t only about money and tax.
One of the kindest things you can do for your family is to leave some guidance about your own wishes.
Would you prefer burial or cremation? Is there a particular cemetery? Are there songs, readings or people you would like involved in your funeral? Are there organisations or charities that are important to you?
You don’t have to plan every detail. But leaving some guidance can remove difficult decisions from your family at a time when they are grieving.
Preparing for the death of a loved one
An Estate Kit can also help families understand what will need to happen when somebody dies.
There can suddenly be a lot to deal with: the funeral, death certificates, the will, banks, pensions, insurance companies, Revenue, property, probate and eventually the distribution of the estate.
Nobody wants to be searching through drawers, old emails and filing cabinets trying to establish whether a bank account or insurance policy even exists.
A good Estate Kit doesn’t remove the grief or all of the administration. What it does is give the family **a starting point and a clear map of the person’s affairs**.
Don’t wait until you think you need one
Estate planning has an unfortunate tendency to be put on the long finger.
But preparing an Estate Kit isn’t really about death. It is about **getting organised while you’re alive**.
You can prepare it gradually, review it once a year and update it whenever something significant changes — a new property, a new business, a marriage, retirement, a new will or a major investment.
And the process itself often identifies things worth sorting out now.
Perhaps your will hasn’t been updated in 15 years. Perhaps nobody else knows about an investment account. Perhaps the ownership of a property isn’t what you thought it was. Perhaps you’ve always intended to transfer the business to one of your children but have never discussed how that would work.
Those are much better conversations to have today than problems for somebody else to discover later.
We can help you get organised
At **Kevin Barry & Co.**, we regularly help clients with estates, succession, property transfers and the tax issues that arise when assets pass from one generation to another.
If you’re putting together your own Estate Kit, we can help you look at the financial and tax side of your affairs and identify matters that may be worth dealing with during your lifetime.
You don’t need to sort everything out in one meeting. The important thing is to start.
Contact Kevin Barry & Co. here to discuss your estate and succession planning.
A few hours spent getting everything organised today could save your family days or weeks of uncertainty in the future.
