Tag: organize

How to Avoid OverPaying On Things You Already Own

Tom Savino with Savino Veritas requested an interview to discuss humorous topics related to how couples communicate. There are so many issues I have learned as a wife, mother, and daughter about what we share and don’t share with our spouse. I hadn’t really understood the depth of what seems to be the divide-and-conquer household until I launched MemoryBanc.

When most of my clients turned out to be couples, I learned how important it was for families to share their documents, accounts, and details and how often the information mattered in terms of time and money. We recently saved hundreds of dollars on a replacement cell phone for my son because I was able to login to my husband’s account and order it online while my husband was traveling. On the flip-side, I was able to ensure my husband knew the service call on the dishwasher was covered by the warranty when I was traveling and he had to meet the repair man who presented him with a bill for the service. Our ability to coordinate our shared lives saved us over $800.

For couples that use the online bill payment portal in their joint bank account, I hope you will sit down with you spouse to share the access codes and set-up. What most joint account owners do not know is that the bill pay portal is specific to the user, so if you wanted to change, stop, or modify a payment set up by your joint account partner– you could not without their login credentials. For this reason, my husband and I break the rules and share one username and passcode.

If you got some time, listen here, it’s a very different type of show and I had a fun time talking with him.

If you recognize you might not be so organized, here are some links to free downloads that can help you get started:

FamilyPackIf you know you want to avoid putting it off ’til tomorrow and benefit from coordinating this information with your spouse, you can order a copy of the workbook from Amazon or get a discounted 5 pack ($11.95 each or 40 percent off) that you can share over Thanksgiving with your family from MemoryBanc.

Don’t Put Off ‘Til Tommorrow

thomasTom Savino with Savino Veritas sent out a request for a radio guest to discuss humorous topics related to how couples communicate. I immediately replied. There are so many issues I have learned as a wife, mother, and daughter about what we share and don’t share with our spouse. I hadn’t really understood the depth of what seems to be the divide-and-conquer household until I launched MemoryBanc.

When most of my clients turned out to be couples, I learned how important it was for families to share their documents, accounts, and details and how often the information mattered in terms of time and money. We recently saved hundreds of dollars on a replacement cell phone for my son. My husband was traveling and he is the manager of the AT&T account, but because I had his username and passcode, I could order the replacement. We have also helped avoid paying for service calls that were covered under the warranty, but the technician tried to collect a visit fee. For couples that use the online bill payment portal in their joint bank account, I hope you will sit down with you spouse to share the access codes and set-up. What most joint account owners do not know is that the bill pay portal is specific to the user, so if you wanted to change, stop, or modify a payment set up by your joint account partner– you could not without their login credentials. For this reason, my husband and I break the rules and share one username and passcode.

If you got some time, listen here, it’s a very different type of show and I had a fun time talking with him.

If you recognize you might not be so organized, here are some links to free downloads that can help you get started:

If you know you want to avoid putting it off ’til tomorrow and benefit from coordinating this information with your spouse, you can order a copy of the workbook from Amazon or get a discounted 5 pack ($11.95 each or 40 percent off) that you can share over Thanksgiving with your family from MemoryBanc. Offered.

What I Learned as a Caregiver Can Help Millions of Families

wbalpicThis weekend I was interviewed by Jennifer Franciotti on WBAL TV. She interviewed me about my best selling book MemoryBanc: Your Workbook for Organizing Life. While the simple answer as to why I wrote the book was that my parents health failed and managing all the information around their lives was overwhelming at times. Most of you know the complications, stress, grief, joy, love, and commitment it takes to be a caregiver. Having to manage all the details became the burden that overwhelmed me so I created a reference system to make their information easier to retrieve.

The silver-lining to my journey has been that the tool I created to help keep my parents information organized, is really a tool that can help millions of families. I’m honored to say I have already had many families share with me what a difference the system made in their household, from an active family of five, to empty nesters, as well as senior couples.

What we learn as caregivers, is that many skills we develop apply to our everyday life. Prepared. 

3 Products To Simplify the Job of Every Caregiver

This story originally appeared on SpareFoot, and covered 11 products to help you organize in 2015. I’ve culled it down to three products that will simplify the job of every caregiver. Visit this link to read the complete list or read on to learn about the 3 products every caregiver should know about and how it will help you.

The number of accounts, documents and information you need to manage for yourself and your own household can be overwhelming. When I steped in to help my parents, it tripled the amount of information I needed to manage. Here are three things I have used to help organize their information so that I can easily find it, as well as protect it in a format that my siblings could easily understand and use if something were to happen to me.

1. MemoryBanc

RegisterwithGiftBox+PDF

MemoryBanc, is the award-winning system that comes in written or electronic formats, and prompts the users through the process of collecting and managing usernames; passcodes; and financial, medical, household and personal documents.

Today, “adults are creating written roadmaps to their documents, accounts and assets. Many are concerned about sharing key personal information in the cloud or a cloud-based solution and are using traditional pen and paper instead,” said Kay Bransford, president and chief curator of MemoryBanc. The written and flash drive formats make it easy to share the information with a loved one and keep the details of the individuals we are assisting organized.

2. Doorstep Digital

DOORSTEP

As the name implies, Doorstep Digital brings digital archiving to your door. In nine U.S. cities, digital archivists will come to your home to preserve photos, slides, negatives, documents and artwork. Company executives say this does away with the risk of priceless items being damaged or lost when they’re archived outside your home.

So far, the service is available in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, TX; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; and Seattle, WA.

After my father passed away, I used a local photo scanning service to digitize selected photographs of his life that we used at his memorial service. I then had a way to share these photo’s with my siblings and created a digital archive of our most treasured family photographs.

3. Fujitsu Scansnap

SCANSNAP

Fujitsu Scansnap scanners reduce paper clutter by allowing you to scan and store an array of documents. Turner said such scanners are becoming more affordable.

“I’m not sure I would say that 2015 will be a breakthrough year, but I definitely see desktop scanners being fairly typical by 2020,” she said.

I have been managing my parent’s financial, personal and medical lives for over 3 years. This is the one tool that has helped me stay organized while not being overloaded with paper. Be careful – it’s addictive!

I hope you find one of these products or services can help you simplify your job as a caregiver. Wished.

3 Products and Services to Help You Get It Together in 2015

This story originally appeared on SpareFoot, but I’m re-sharing and paring down the list to 3 key products that will help you mind the important stuff (documents, accounts, and assets) better. Visit this link to read the complete list.

Getting organized can be a bore and a chore, but various innovations are helping take some of the drudgery out of getting the important things organized.

1. MemoryBanc

RegisterwithGiftBox+PDF

MemoryBanc, a system that comes in written or electronic formats, lets someone collect and manage usernames; passcodes; and financial, medical, household and personal documents.

“Adults are creating written roadmaps to their documents, accounts and assets. Many are concerned about sharing key personal information in the cloud or a cloud-based solution and are using traditional pen and paper instead,” said Kay Bransford, president and chief curator of MemoryBanc.

2. Doorstep Digital

DOORSTEP

As the name implies, Doorstep Digital brings digital archiving to your door. In nine U.S. cities, digital archivists will come to your home to preserve photos, slides, negatives, documents and artwork. Company executives say this does away with the risk of priceless items being damaged or lost when they’re archived outside your home.

So far, the service is available in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, TX; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; and Seattle, WA.

After my father passed away, I used a photo scanning service to digitize selected photographs of his life that we used at his memorial service and that I could share with my siblings. I now have a digital archive of our most treasured family photographs.

3. Fujitsu Scansnap

SCANSNAP

Fujitsu Scansnap scanners reduce paper clutter by allowing you to scan and store an array of documents. Turner said such scanners are becoming more affordable.

“I’m not sure I would say that 2015 will be a breakthrough year, but I definitely see desktop scanners being fairly typical by 2020,” she said.

I have been managing my parent’s financial, personal and medical lives for over 3 years. This is the one tool that has helped me stay organized while not being overloaded with paper. Be careful – it’s addictive!

Using a Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA)

My parents did what the estate lawyer recommended. As well as the financial planner and insurance professional. However, when the time came for me to step in and help them using their Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA), things were a little more difficult that we all expected.

One of the major firms told me they would not accept a DPOA that was over two years old; a second told me they didn’t accept ones more than five years old. It happens though it shouldn’t, and sometimes you may need the lawyer who drafted the agreement to pursue it for you.

Legal tools alone won’t handle every situation. However, every adult should consider meeting with an estate lawyer to discuss your needs.  Because of my experience, I recommend that even those with estate plans take the extra step of documenting their information. For the estimated bulk of Americans without any estate plans (power of attorney, medical directives, will) , for your own best-interest, you should get your documents, accounts, and assets organized.

In my case, my dad sat down with me and we created online access to many of their accounts from their retirement to utilities, so that I could easily help pay bills, manage cash flow, their household and finances.

Are you prepared? If not, my free gift to you is a list of the items you need to document, download it here.

To get a copy of the award-winning system to help you collect and organize your documents, accounts, and assets, you can order a copy from Amazon, BAM!, or Barnes & Noble.  For $17.95, MemoryBanc: Your Workbook for Organizing Life will not only help you easily find your important information, but will give a road map to a loved one who you may need to step in and help, if even only temporarily.

Finding $2,500 of my Dad’s in Kansas

treasurechestStepping in to assist a parent is an overwhelming task. Trying to organize my parents medical, financial, personal and household papers was a job requirement. I needed an easy way to collect and document the information so I could easily find it as well as hand it off to a sibling who came to town to give me a break from caregiving. The experience fueled me to launch MemoryBanc

Many people are unaware that $58 billion is sitting in state and federal treasuries — it’s money that got lost in the shuffle of a move, crisis and even death. As a caregiver, you should know about the MissingMoney.org website. You can do one search and see if any of your loved ones money ended up in a state treasury. Every year, I do a quick search to see if anything slipped through the cracks. Last year, we found several accounts – one was in the name of my Grandfather, and the second was in the name of my Dad.

My sister started digging and learned that we could just go right to the state where the money was lost to claim our money. If you use the service on MissingMoney, they will take a cut or “finder’s fee” of your money. See additional information on this topic below. 

We find that my Granddad’s money is less than $100 and requesting the forms we’d need to claim would cost more than we would recoup, so we leave that money alone. However, when we learn that my Dad had money that was left in Kansas — and we have all the forms with the exception of the a proof of residency for their home in 1968 — my sister finds out how to get the old title to prove his residency.

Within weeks, we get a check for $2,500. We moved from Kansas in 1969 and grew up hearing stories about how my parents had to borrow the down payment to buy our home. The idea that there were assets that got left in Kansas more than 40 years ago that ended up being worth $2,500 is a little mind-blowing.

Given the amount of accounts you accumulate today, it’s easy to understand how easy it might be to forget about a stock certificate, utility deposit, or even a small retirement account. Enriched. 

HOW TO SEARCH FOR MISSING MONEY

To do a quick search to see if you are entitled to missing funds, visit MissingMoney.org. Enter your name and state and you will get back a list of possible matches. You can use their services to collect your money, or:

1) Go to the state web site where you believe you may have missing money

2) Search the state web site for “missing” or “unclaimed money”

3) Make a direct claim following the web site instructions.

icon-warning
MissingMoney does not include all states and not all the information — in particular some very old records. To learn more about this topic, check out Mary Pitman who wrote a book on the topic https://www.facebook.com/TheMissingMoneyLady

Will the Power of Attorney work when you need it to?

I beat the drum on the issue of a Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA). I had one for my parents, but one financial services firm rejected it because it was more than 2 years old, a second who said they won’t accept one more than 5 years old and their insurance firm said they would only accept the version they created. This statement shocks many who believe they are covered.

POAIf you have any concerns about your DPOA, I recommend you speak to a lawyer who is dedicated to the practice of Estate Planning. They should counsel you that there are some instances where you may need them to follow-up to ensure the DPOA is accepted. It’s one of many reasons to not use an online legal service for your estate planning needs.

When you are getting your wills, and power of attorney done, I strongly urge you to find a lawyer who ONLY focuses on Estate Planning. The state and federal laws and rulings are constantly changing and those issues are things the estate lawyer can help you with. We found one to get a DPOA for my parents that would be accepted by their banks and insurance company. If you had a heart condition, you would not go to a general practice doctor, you would see a cardiologist. Look at finding a lawyer who specialized in estate planning when you are updating these documents.

In reality, there is more to organizing your estate than just having the legal papers in place — you need to get it organized and setting up online access is a huge benefit to a loved one if they ever need to step in and assist you.

To learn more about the DPOA issues check out a story in The Wall Street Journal –  Power Grab! Signing Over Power of Attorney to a Loved One Has Never Been Trickier. Here’s What You Need to Know. 

To get your personal, financial, online, medical and household records organized so they are easier for you to access as well as share with or pass onto a loved one, visit www.MemoryBanc.com/Register 

Driven. 

Jonesing for the Era of June Cleaver

june cleaver valentineI was so excited with my first mobile phone. It was a car phone that had to be installed. I had a two-hour commute and being able to call my boyfriend was worth the cost of the latest technology.

The expectation to manage the many modes of communication 24/7 has made me reconsider the joy I felt towards that first mobile phone. We now have to manage email, texts and postings on the various social media sites we use on top of mail and home and work numbers.

The change from letters and a home phone to a variety of communication devices has radically changed how we manage our lives and how the companies that we use interact with us and how they provide service. It’s also made managing and organizing personal, financial, online and household accounts and services much more complex.

As I sift through my parents’ papers and try to manage their accounts due to their dementia diagnoses, I envy the era of the Cleavers. More than three years ago, I started to support my parents’ banking and bill pay needs. It took me more than six months just to collect major account details. Just last month a life insurance policy of my mother’s emerged.

This is not a new problem. Today, $58 billion is sitting with a variety of state treasuries and federal agencies representing checking accounts, security deposits and life insurance policies that are unclaimed (CNN Money). Many of these details fall off the radar in a crisis or during the chaos of settling an estate. However, I’m wondering how many accounts I am missing and I have had three years with my parents to collect and organize their important papers. Things are just a lot more complex today and if you don’t already know this, most financial institutions DO NOT ACCEPT even a Durable Power-of-Attorney if it’s not on their letterhead and written by their lawyers.

This month’s edition of Consumer Reports shared that both spouses knew the details about family finances and where to find major account information in only 30 percent of all households. The story went on to report that 86 percent had not updated their wills or other estate planning documents within the previous five years. Without these documents, the laws in your state will dictate how your assets and children are cared for – and you will be paying them to provide that service for your estate regardless of its size.

Several recent news stories highlight the need to document your personal, financial and online details – regardless of your age. The breadth and depth of the impact to individuals of all ages and walks of life continues to surprise me. The Wall Street Journal reported Life and Death Online: Who Controls a Digital Legacy? The article discusses the impact of the digital world on the legacy of an individual when they die. The prime subject of the story was only 16 years old.

There is a lot of material to organize. You can download our free guide to all the important papers and accounts that would make a huge difference to your loved ones should they need it. Make it your special Valentine’s Day gift to your those around you who will be impacted if you have not done this already.

We can also help you get organized. From the MemoryBanc® Register™ that organizes your personal, financial, medical, online and household details, to our Do-It-Now Service to get organized in 2 two-hour sessions, to our secure concierge storage and delivery services to ensure your information gets to the right person when it’s needed most.

We have left the era of June Cleaver far behind, and now I ask you to consider organizing your vital papers and telling family members where to find them. It’s the kindest thing you can do for your loved ones.

Sincerely,
– Kay
Kay Bransford
Chief Curator and Founder, MemoryBanc
P.S. Order a MemoryBanc Register by February 28, 2013 and receive a 10 percent discount. To take advantage of this offer, enter “GRACE” in the coupon code box at www.MemoryBanc.com/Register.

For questions or to place your order by phone, call 703.436.2827.

Who Controls YOUR Digital Legacy?

digital legacy graphicWhile this story doesn’t apply to my parents, it’s a wake up call to those of us with a myriad of online accounts and digital assets.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal on January 5, 2013, Life and Death Online, Who Controls a Digital Legacy? is a raw story that validates the meaning and sense of loss that could come if no one has access to your digital legacy.

At minimum, you should have documented your usernames and pass codes and told someone you trust where to find them. If you have done that, I urge you to go back and note which ones pull from credit cards or other online payment accounts. Help those who would step in to help by at least organizing your online estate.

A more robust exploration of this topic was done in The New York Times (2011) in Cyberspace When You’re Dead. It provides a variety of examples exploring both the impact of being able to continue to access the accounts to the added grief to those who lost access. While it does discuss some online options to protect your digital legacy — I continue to beat the drum to organize all of your materials in one place!

In a related story, several states seem to be discussing how to deal with digital estates.  A New Hampshire bill would give all access rights to the executor. I have talked to several Estate Attorneys who are now working with clients to identify a “digital executor” who may be different from the traditional executor  role. The same issues will be faced by both executors — where are all your personal, financial, online and household records and details?

Have you ever had to view the profile of a friend on Facebook or LinkedIn that passed? It’s disconcerting. Even worse, my husband told me about spam emails he’s getting from a friend who died over a year ago. Apparently the spammers have reached a new low. It won’t take you more than 20 minutes to create a quick list that could mean a lot to those around you. Preached. 

Can we order one of your books?

MemoryBanc RegisterOn the past few visits with my parents I have taken phone calls that were orders for the MemoryBanc Register. My mom let’s out a “hot dang!” then asks “can we order one of your books?”

My brain reels. Try as I might, I’m the kind of gal who has the witty response a day after it would have been useful. My defense for this has been to stick with the truth. So I tell my mom I already have a book for them.

Recently, my mom has been appreciative of the help and telling me now how much she is struggling to put information together. I have never shared with them they have been the inspiration for my business. She has no idea how many MONTHS I spent trying to find all the information on their accounts. She doesn’t know how frustrating it’s been to try and help them. My parent’s do not understand how many things they were failing to manage (bills, household maintenance) and many simple fixes their Power-of-Attorney could have fixed were derailed.

The blessing of the Internet has been that I could set-up online access to act on my parent’s behalf. I had enough personal information and knew what their PINs would be. It’s been over two years since she called me to ask how to put money in the bank. Just last week we uncovered another bank account and a life insurance policy. It’s no wonder that the Washington Post reported that there is over $32 billion dollars of unclaimed funds are sitting in state treasuries just waiting to be claimed.

It’s time to put the book in front of my parents (or a summary at least) so they can see, touch and feel more connected to their own estate. Documented.