Need some advice

bermary

Hello all,I am 76 years old and not in the best of health my problem is I have always dealt with the banking and such like in our household my o/h as no idea at all about money matters. my problem is how should I go about getting someone to help sort things out for other half if something were to happen to me.

xylophone

Make sure that all your records are in order. Make sure that you have an up to date will and that your OH knows where to find it.
Make a list of all bank accounts, insurance policies etc. Put all papers in clearly marked box files.
Make sure that you have a joint account for all essential payments, water, gas, electricity, council tax etc so that these would continue in the event of your death.
Do you have a trusted friend or relation? If so, go through all the above with them so that your OH will have some support.
Talk matters through now with your OH and leave a letter of instructions with your will.

sleepless_saver

Does your OH (or someone else you trust) have power of attorney so your affairs can be dealt with if you become too ill to manage them yourself? If not, that should be your priority.

Have a look at this thread to see the kind of problem that can arise if there is no power of attorney in place, especially if the partner is unfamiliar with dealing with money matters to start with.

calypso_rhapsody

Good practical advice there!

You seem to be assuming that your OH is incapable of learning how to deal with the money matters? Can you show him/her and start to have them 'shadowing' what you do so that they feel confident to handle at least day to day stuff. Otherwise the obvious choices would be a relative or perhaps whoever will be your executor? If there is no-one then i'd suggest you contact your local Help the Aged branch - or similar, as i imagine they might be able ot find a volunteer to help but obviously there are risks in involving an outsider in your finances.

sleepless_saver

I'd also suggest taking steps to simplify your financial affairs as far as possible, preferably before you start involving your OH in learning about them.

cloud_dog

bermary wrote: »

Hello all,I am 76 years old and not in the best of health my problem is I have always dealt with the banking and such like in our household my o/h as no idea at all about money matters. my problem is how should I go about getting someone to help sort things out for other half if something were to happen to me.

Hi Bermary, its nice to think of your partner and to try to lessen the confusion and worry for them.

Whilst I am not near your age the idea of leaving my partner with the worry of 'sorting out finances' is something I am concerned with, not because she is incapable of doing so but just the thought of adding these thing on top of the other obvious distress and confusion they may be suffering at that time.

As others have already said you need to get things organised as much as possible beforehand so that the need to undertake changes is reduced as much as possible.

I have a Word document which lists all the organisations we (as a house hold) deal with and any pertinent information:

• Bank Accounts
• Savings Accounts
• Investments
• Credit Cards
• Mortgage
• Utilities
• Telephony
• Internet
• Cars
• Dependants
• Pensions
• Insurance
• Life Assurance

The Word document is broken down in to two main sections:

• What you need to know
• What you need to do

For the financial accounts this document doesn't hold any sensitive information but will list the institutions together with any relevant information, i.e. where to find certificates (for bonds) etc.

The next step is to clearly organise the information for ease of reference. For ourselves we have a filing cabinet with defined sections for the above. My mother, on the other hand has a simple brief case with envelopes clearly identifying what institution or type of pertinent information is contained within.

In the 'What you need to do' section I provide initial guidance, i.e.:

• You can expect XXXX life assurance
• We are likely to have XXXX on the credit card,
• If we have credit card debt pay this off first

With regard to how to manage any monies coming from my unfortunate demise I provide some guidance on how much should be kept as easily accessible cash, etc, and the need to speak with an IFA.

The last one is quite a big ask of most people. Perhaps this is something you could investigate yourself and possible even 'line up' or identify a suitable IFA for future use if required and document this.

Your more than welcome to have a copy of my document (without specific content obviously), however its not rocket science but may help you lay out what you want to do. If you want a copy just PM me.

EDIT: I have this as a short-cut on the PC but you could print it off and leave a copy in the aforementioned filing cabinet / brief case / draw for reference purposes.

JoeCrystal

That is actually very good idea, cloud_dog! Thank you for sharing it with us!

bermary

Thankyou very much cloud dog,I have done most of the things that you are suggesting,like a list of the places where our savings and what we have in investments are and written down the telephone numbers to contact them and also printed out the various things and places to get in touch with for like paying the bills and such.I was wondering if it would be a good idea to see a IFA,would one be able to help in such matters,

Yorkie1

My parents are not much younger than you, bermary, and I'm really pleased that you've asked this question as they are in the same position as you and your OH.

My parents already have an IFA who looks after their investments. Mum knows how to contact him if need be. Her immediate need will be the day to day stuff - how to record expenditure, how to check the credit card bills. She doesn't get involved in the paperwork at all and doesn't have a particularly logical brain (never had to have, I suppose).

The other thing which was brought home to us all recently was the practical side of things in the house. Dad was staying with me for a few days and the heating broke at their home. Mum didn't understand how the thermostat worked, couldn't reach on top of the wardrobe to get spare batteries, didn't know how to contact British Gas to get an engineer out under their service contract.

It's the unexpected things which you also forget to plan for.

cloud_dog

Yorkie has hit another nail on the head.

When my father passed away a number of years ago my mother did not know how to write a cheque; she'd never had to before.

I look after my mums finances, i.e. looking for the best savings accounts, fixing savings (or not) etc, reviewing if she should change a utility provider.

To be honest some we move around and some we don't, just because if it is easier for her to leave things as they are then its acceptable to miss out on some savings.

One thing we did do was to register all her direct equity shareholdings online and I set up an e-mail account I could monitor. The reason for this was that you receive a lot of notice of AGMs etc and these were confusing her. She used to keep all the paperwork just in case which, creates paperwork hell when you are trying to ensure all the paperwork is up to date. Obviously this needs to be monitored for important activities, i.e. rights issues, special dividends etc.

If you do have direct equity holdings perhaps it might be worth considering moving these in to a collective vehicle where your DH won't receive any / much communications. This decision is also dependent on the size of investments and the role an IFA might play in your plans.

There are other practical considerations some of which could be undertaken by a close friend or children.

I don't particularly like touching on this but, do you have anyone identified as an executor or who could assist your DH? The reason I ask is that obviously there will need to be a lot of notifications sent out to the various organisations and this needs to be undertaken. If there isn't someone who will undertake, or assist with this perhaps you could create a library of pre-printed notification letters and leave the date blank. Again instructions could be added to the 'What you need to do'. My apologies for touching on this.