I Just Had A Baby: New Parents Checklist

Name A Guardian ASAP

If something happens to you and you don’t pick a person to care for your kids then the courts will be doing it for you. You have to name the person in your Will, so you’ll have to create one of those. [Dig Deeper: How To Choose A Guardian Of The Person, How To Create A Will]

Life Insurance: Term or Whole Life

How will your family get by financially if something happened to you? Term Life Insurance is often reasonable and covers you for a set amount of time. Whole Life Insurance is a lot more expensive but it never expires. After you get a policy, let the beneficiaries know where you keep it. [Dig Deeper: All You Need To Know About Life Insurance]

With Great Power of Attorney Comes Great Responsibility

Your POA has power over everything involving your finances. This includes paying bills, managing bank accounts, overseeing investments, signing contracts, and filing your taxes. [Dig Deeper: All You Need To Know About Naming A POA]

Medical Decisions To Make

The components of an Advance Directive include: Naming a Health Care Proxy, creating a Living Will, Organ Donation and other medical odds and ends to take the burden off your family if you get sick or are the victim of an accident. All you need to do is download your state’s Advance Directive form here and fill it out. [Dig Deeper: All You Need To Know About Advance Directives]

Get Your Paperwork Under Control

If something happened to you today would your family know where you keep all your important paperwork? This includes all the stuff listed above (Will, Life Insurance Policy, POA, Advance Directive...) as well as passwords for digital accounts and all the other stuff probably cluttering up your world. [Dig Deeper: All You Need To Know About Organizing Important Documents]

Trust Issues?

People set up Trusts to minimize estate taxes, avoid probate court, and seamlessly transfer money and property to heirs. [Dig Deeper: All You Need To Know About Trusts]