09/25/2026
Asset organization
Most households have one person who handles the money. When that person is gone, the other one does not inherit a problem so much as a search.
The fix is unglamorous. One document that says where everything is. Not a will, not a plan, just a map.
WHERE THE MONEY IS. Banks with account types and numbers. Brokerage, 401(k), IRA, pension and annuity accounts. Every source of income: paychecks, Social Security, pensions, rent, dividends.
WHAT KEEPS GOING OUT. Mortgage or rent, utilities, loans, credit cards, and anything on autopay. Autopay does not stop when someone dies, and a card still drafting against a frozen account makes its own mess.
THE PAPER THAT PROVES IT. Insurance policies with the company name and the policy number, covering life, disability, long-term care, auto and home. The will, the trust, powers of attorney, the healthcare directive, and where the originals physically are. Then the people: attorney, CPA, advisor, insurance agent, employer, and who to call first.
And the one these lists get wrong: digital access. Do not write passwords into a document kept in a drawer. Name the password manager and turn on its emergency access or legacy contact setting, which exists for exactly this and hands over on a delay without putting credentials on paper.
Three things worth knowing before they are needed. A beneficiary designation generally controls over a will for the asset it covers, and under ERISA the plan documents and the beneficiary form are what the administrator must follow, even against a divorce decree. Social Security pays a one-time lump-sum death payment of $255, and survivors have two years from the date of death to claim it. And the NAIC runs a free Life Insurance Policy Locator that has matched almost $17 billion in unclaimed life insurance and annuity benefits since 2016.
Write it while both of you are here. Tell one other person where it lives. Open it once a year.
Source: SSA, the NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator, and Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont (2009), current as of September 2026.
Educational content only. Not financial, tax, legal, or investment advice.
