We should all have our affairs in order all the time, not just in case we die, because it's important to know what we have and how things stand in our lives. If you needed to find the title to your car, could you find it, or do you have to buy a new copy? What about your marriage license, your divorce decree? Do you have all your insurance papers in one place? Do you know what stocks you own and how they are doing? Do you know what you have set aside for retirement and what retirements you've earned? Do you know if you have any unclaimed inheritances or other property?
How do you know?
The first time you put your affairs inorder, it can be time-consuming and frustrating and maybe even expensive if you have to buy a lot of replacement documents. And there are a lot of steps that first time. But once you have it set up and organized, a couple of hours a year is all you need to keep it maintained.
Perhaps the most important part of getting your affairs in order is that you share that information with someone else. Your spouse, your parents, your children, a trusted friend, someone who will be intimately involved in settling your estate after your death. And if you appoint someone to be the executor of your estate, please be sure that person knows the essentials. There's nothing worse than being the executor of someone's estate whom you haven't seen or spoken to for 30 or more years!
I have a book called "A Graceful Farewell" that lists everything in it. I create a new one every year, transfering the old information and updating it in the new one, and add blank pages (a 3-ring binder is a good choice). Throughout the year, I write in it all the new information I'll need to update next year: passwords, new blogs (this year, I added DKos to my 2012 volume of "A Graceful Farewell", for instance), new debts and new pets, new contacts, and so on, as well as completed debts.
Your book doesn't have to be handwritten. I put all my information in a document and print it out once a year, with blank pages to update. Once a year, I update it and print it out again, tossing the old print version and the handwritten updates.
Not everyone will have all of the following, I certainly don't, but I listed as many things as I could think of that people might have that need to be considered. That said, these are the sort of things you'd put in your book:
Book:
Full legal name, including maiden name nad any previous married names
Social Security Number
Legal Residence
Date and Place of Birth
Names and addresses of Children
Names and addresses of former spouses (as well as the current one)
Names and addresses of parents and grandparents or their date of death
Location of birth and death certificates of all family members
Location of marriage, divorce, citizenship, and adoption papers
Employer and date of employment/retirement
Education and military record location
Memberships in groups and awards received
Names and numbers of: family, friends, lawyer, accountant, stock broker, doctors
Location of retirement funds, IRA, KEOGH, 401(k), interest, trust funds, etc.
Medicare information (if applicable)
Insurance information: life, health, mortgage, car, disability, pre-paid funeral...
Bank information: account numbers, checking, savings, loans, credit unions
Investment information: stocks, bonds, property (account numbers)
The most recent tax return location
Location of deeds and titles
Location of print photo albums
Location of digital photos and password
Credit and debit card information
Location of safety deposit box and key/combination/password
Location of a storage unit and the key/combination
Liabilities (debts, loans, taxes, personal debts)
Utilities: account numbers, passwords if paid online
Medications you may be taking
Location of Will, Living Will, Medical Power of Attorney, Financial Power of Attorney
List of internet accounts and passwords: LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, DKos, LiveJournal, Tumblr, WordPress, GMail, and so on.
Location of keys for safes, chests, filing cabinets, cars, houses, etc.
Note automatic payments and when they are debited from your account - and from which account!
Inventory of collections
Location of certification papers for collectibles
Location of photos of collection items
Inventory of heirlooms
Location of photos of heirlooms
Inventory of art
Location of certifications/authentications of art
Location of photos of art
Inventory of special tools and equipment
List of favorite charities
List of volunteer organizations depending on you
Names and care instructions for pets
Letter of instructions for personal bequests
Letter of instructions for your funeral/memorial service/remains
Now, once you have this information written into your own Affairs Book, there are some physical things you have to do. Mind, you won't have to do all of the following, because it all depends upon what you have and what you do and so on.
Label things:
Label all your photos. List the names of people in the photo, the date the photo was takem where the photo was taken. If pets are in the photo, include their names. If you took pictures of landscapes, name the location. If you took pictures of heirlooms, name the heirloom.
Label your collections: date acquired, last appraised value (if known or applicable), and any history or information on the item
Label your heirlooms (or the photos of them): date acquired, last appraised value (if known), and any history or information on them
Update Beneficiaries
Put money, property, etc into any trusts you've set up
Put your papers where you wrote you did and keep them there. That makes it easier for your executor to find them. If you move your papers, write it in your book (or update it in your database, flash drive, wiki...).
Update often. The reason I have a book is because I can run it like a diary - the most recent changes are at the back of the book, dated and in my handwrting so there can be no legal dispute over those changes if I die before my Annual Update. It's as easy as keeping a diary, really. If I simply did this online or on a flash drive, there wouldn't be the evidence that I made the update or change, and sometimes, it takes a lot of sleuthing to verify when the change was made. This is why I update it all in a .doc file, print it, add blank pages, and handwrite all the changes and updates throughout the year.
If you want others to have immediate access to your bank account and assets, add them to the titles and so on as "with right of survivorship".
Talk to your heirs. What they will and won't inherit shouldn't be a guessing game.
Update your data regularly. Yearly is good, but every 5 years works, too, if you're organized enough to remember between the intervals. This is why I print the info out and hand write updates into the notebook all year long, then update it all once a year and print it out and - yeah, rinse and repeat ad infinitum. Or at least until I die. I know death will win in the end since the price of life is death, so I intend to live every moment of it that I possibly and as fully as I can - and leave my affairs in such order that my survivors can get on with their lives as soon as possible. It's been 4, almost 5 years, since Mother's death, and I'm still cleaning up loose ends. My friend who died intestate but did manage to name me executrix before his death left me with a mess that's taking years to clean up (and I didn't know until after he was dead and I knew nothing of his affairs since we'd livedin different states for years). And now that I'm getting older and my friends are dying of age-related issues, that problem is coming up more and more. I'm getting skilled at cleaning up estates and have become an informal go-to person for friends and the children of friends and even a few grandchildren of friends for advice when they have a family member die.
I know it sounds and looks like an intimidatingly long list. It is. But only the first time you put it all together. After that it really is easier to deal with.