Checklist: Documents To Organize And Share

When you're getting your estate in order, there are many accounts, policies, documents, and other information to organize—and the list of to-dos can quickly become overwhelming. But our ultimate planning checklist will help you get organized painlessly. Putting all your most important information into an Everplan will relieve a big burden on your family if anything should happen to you—and you can relax knowing that they're taken care of.

You can also use this as a guide to start securely storing and sharing all the information listed below with an Everplan.

Insurance Policies

• Life Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Car Insurance
• Home Insurance
• Other Insurance policies (theft, fire, earthquake, etc.)

Bank Accounts

• Checking accounts
• Savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Certificates of deposit (CDs)
• Debit cards

Credit Cards

• Card number
• Expiration date
• Recent account statements
• Login and password information for online account management

Mortgages Or Loans

• Company through which mortgage or loan was given
• A copy of the mortgage or loan agreement

Tax Returns

• Most recent W-2 forms or federal self-employment tax return
• Income tax returns for the current and previous year, including 1040 variations and 1099s, if applicable
• Gift tax returns

Pension Plans And Retirement Benefit Information

• 401(k) or 403(b) plans
• IRAs
• Roth IRAs
• Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plan
• Salary Reduction Simplified Employee Pension (SARSEP) plan

Titles Or Deeds To Any Property

• Real estate
• Motor vehicles
• Boats

Investment Portfolios

• Stocks
• Bonds
• Mutual funds

Will

• Copy of the Will
• Copies of previous versions of the Will
• Name of attorney or law firm that helped create the Will, if applicable

Trusts

• Declarations of trust or Trust agreements
• Name of attorney or law firm that helped create the Trust, if applicable
• Bank accounts associated with the Trust

Power Of Attorney

• Name of the person appointed to Power Of Attorney
• Power Of Attorney documentation
• Name of attorney or law firm that helped create the POA, if applicable

Safe Deposit Box

• Location of safe deposit box
• Safe deposit box keys or location of safe deposit box keys

Any Professionals Who Have Helped

• Lawyer
• Accountant
• Insurance agent

Advance Directive

• Living Will
• Health Care Proxy
• Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)

Proof Of Identity And Relationships

• Social Security card
• Armed Forces discharge papers
• Birth certificate
• Death certificate
• Marriage certificates
• Divorce certificates
• Prenuptial agreements
• Divorce settlements

Household Utilities

• Electricity
• Gas
• Water
• Phone
• Cable
• Internet

Automatically Renewing Medications

• Names of medications
• Name of pharmacy where medications are renewed
• Name of doctor who prescribed medication

Email

• Gmail
• Hotmail
• Yahoo! Mail
• AOL

Online Businesses

• Amazon
• PayPal
• Ebay

Social Media

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Creating an Everplan walks you through each of these items, and tons more, until you have a solid plan in place, which you can easily share with the important people in your life. Give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is you'll become super organized.