When putting together your estate plan, you need to choose an Executor, the person responsible for administering your estate. Once you’ve decided on who that should be, there are things you can do to help your Executor out.
Prepare a list of assets, including real estate, bank and investment accounts, insurance and retirement accounts. Include account numbers and contact information. Years ago, if an executor couldn’t find account statements, it might take a month or two of waiting for the statements to show up in the mail. Hard copy statements sent by regular mail are becoming more and more rare. If your asset and account information is stored online, how will your Executor find it?
You may not want to share information with your Executor now, but you can still assemble it, and let your executor know where to find it. Whether you use a password manager, or have your own system for storing and updating passwords, your executor is going to need your user names and passwords. While it is important to keep such information secure, it is also important not to keep it so secure that the person you’ve chosen to carry out your estate plan can’t get access to the information needed to do the job.
Another list to prepare is people to contact. This includes your accountant, your attorney, and your insurance agent. It also includes your next of kin. To probate a Will in Georgia, the Executor has to provide the Probate Court with the names and addresses of your next of kin. If you don’t have a spouse, children or grandchildren, that list could include living parents, siblings, or nieces and nephews if a sibling is deceased. Even if you haven’t had contact with someone on that list for years, the Executor will still have to track that person down.
Serving as an Executor is a job that requires time and effort. You can help your Executor out by making sure the information needed to do that job is easy to find.
Is it time to think who will serve important roles like Executor in your estate plan? Call the Estate Planning Law Group of Georgia at 770-822-2723 or contact us through our website.
Contact the Estate Planning Law Group of Georgia
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