You have a will but do you have an LOI?

[noppenbd]

Everyone has heard how important a will is to your survivors, especially if you have children and/or significant assets, but have you heard of a Letter of Instruction (LOI)?

An LOI basically is just a written document which lays out your finances to your survivors. My wife is involved in our finances on a high level, but she leaves all the nitty-gritty stuff to me. I can only imagine her (in a bereaved state no less) trying to figure out how to transfer money out of our emergency fund and what was the name of the Life Insurance company again? On this board especially, I know I am not alone in being the "money person" in the household, and I do not want to leave my SO in the lurch.

Vanguard suggests your LOI contain a list of all your assets, debts, monthly bills, and contact info for various accounts. I know it can seem premature (and a little morbid) but you never know when the proverbial bus is going to come around the corner.

It can be as simple as typing or writing out a couple of pages of info that could save your loved ones a lot of time (and keep your legacy from being "why did he have to be such a PITA?"). Do it today!

[FrugalFish]

I don't have a LOI, but everything of importance is in one of two convenient binders and very well organized. My DH is one who is very disinterested in finances, so I did this for his sake in case something happened to me. If something were to happen to both of us, it would be very clear to our families as well.

When we did our wills last year, it was such a downer, but I felt so much better when they were done and all those ducks were in a row. I find it hard to put these things together, but comforting once they are done and I know it will have saved someone else a burden if one or both of us should perish.

[Caoineag]

Mine is an excel spreadsheet so DH can see where everything is at a glance and what the budget is. I also make sure to periodically show him everything I am doing and what is going on.

[JanH]

That's a good point about the insurance and stuff. I have the stuff packed away for hurricane evacuation, but I doubt Hubby knows what the company is or what to look for. I move things around a lot. I need a central listing of what and where and who. Good suggestion!

[myrdale]

You know it's funny, I have never heard of a LOI but I have been thinking reciently about doing something similar to this. Really not much more than a list of bank accounts and insurance information and the like incase some fool were to run me over tomorrow, by folks would know what I have where.

You would just want to make sure you kept it VERY SAFE!!

Thanks for the post!

[moneybags]

With a list of all the accounts, include the website address, your user name & password.

[noppenbd]

Originally Posted by moneybags

With a list of all the accounts, include the website address, your user name & password.

A phone number and account number could be helpful as well...

[sweeps]

Where do you store the LOI? It would be really bad if it were stolen.

[simpleyme]

I have a binder that has all our financial info in it, we have no debts and DH knows how to open mail so we would be fine

I lock my binder up when I am not using it as it has sensitive info, but I can walk into almost anyones house and they have credit card and other bills laying out in plain site usually by the phone or on the table

[noppenbd]

Originally Posted by sweeps

Where do you store the LOI? It would be really bad if it were stolen.

I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.

Seriously, I actually do not have much personal information in the LOI. I just have the account numbers for our retirement accounts and the provider's phone number. We do have a master list of passwords that is stored separately. So on the LOI it just says that password and login info can be found on our password sheet.

[scfr]

Jonathan Pond has a very good Letter of Instructions that you can download for free off of his web site:

Letter of Instructions - JonathanPond.com

It's very thorough, well-organized and walks the bereaved step-by-step through what they would need to do. I view mine as a way to gently hold my husband's (or my sister's ... they both have copies) hand and help them after I'm gone.