Sound Mind Investing : Parents, Organize Your Financial Life

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Parents, Organize Your Financial Life —
It's the Loving Thing To Do

By Jeff Camp

I recall the events of 12 years ago as clearly today as ever. Out of the blue, my 69 year-old father was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. The doctors were hopeful the disease could be arrested through chemotherapy, but despite all efforts, my father died five weeks later.

While he was still with us, there never seemed to be enough time in the day as my wife and I became overwhelmed with moving my father into our home, trying to manage his care, doctor appointments and business affairs. All this was in addition, of course, to keeping our jobs and attending to our four-year-old daughter.

I had a good idea of what needed to be accomplished during this crisis period, but it took a tremendous amount of time to locate important documents, make the necessary phone calls and inform everyone what was happening. My father was a very good businessman, but at times it was difficult for him to communicate, which made locating important documents and information a challenge. I was fortunate to walk into our small town bank and other businesses to easily get the advice and help I needed. However, today we have HIPPA (Health Information Patient Privacy Act) and other security hurdles that make that type of access difficult and time consuming, especially for out-of-town family members.

While our household was dealing with my father's illness, I laid awake at night thinking there should be an easier way for families in situations like ours to communicate. It's not that people are poor planners or deliberately hide important information. Rather, it's just not in a location or format that make it easy for anyone to retrieve at a moment's notice. Those thoughts were what led me to create LifeFile.

In hindsight, I was fortunate to have several weeks to discuss with my father some very difficult topics; the business affairs were easy compared to talking about funerals and end-of-life issues, life insurance and his will. Not everyone has that chance, and even if you do have time, you don't really want to spend it dwelling on the negative.

Not until I became executor of my father's estate did I fully realize that only after someone dies does the real work begin. The executor and the attorney need a tremendous amount of information and documentation, plus family and creditors need to be contacted.

This is where LifeFile becomes a valuable tool. It leads people to record the information that family and friends might need in the event of an accident, serious illness, or death—personal, financial and medical information, key contacts, and funeral and memorial requests. It also becomes a handy reference for administering routine financial tasks during your lifetime.

The newly released version 6 of LifeFile comes in a PDF format and allows you to complete and store your LifeFile on your personal computer. It's fully compatible with Windows and Macintosh computers using Adobe Acrobat Reader and comes with a password protection feature. If you're still more comfortable with paper and pencil, just print out the pages, fill them out the old-fashioned way and store it in a secure location just as before. One LifeFile can usually accommodate the information for a family of up to five members.

One of the founding principles of LifeFile is to have information that's easily accessible by family or friends in a reasonably secure, unlocked location. It should be relatively easy to find on your computer, or if you print it out, in a filing cabinet. You may also copy your LifeFile to a floppy disk or burn it to a CD. Your LifeFile can act as a bridge to professionals who maintain your more important or secure information. Individual orders are delivered via e-mail. LifeFile is also available to firms or organizations on CD for distribution to clients or members. For more information, visit LifeFile.com or call 509-535-7875.

Through all of the updates and refinements, my viewpoint and the foundation of LifeFile has remained the same: to provide a simple and practical tool that helps individuals and families through a potentially difficult time.

Parents, Organize Your Financial Life —It's the Loving Thing To Do

Parents, Organize Your Financial Life —
It's the Loving Thing To Do