With each passing year, your life changes. Your personal situation changes, people in your life change, and your financial situation fluctuates.  Because your life fluctuates, it’s important to make sure your estate plan reflects any changes that have taken place in the last year. 

The first thing to think about is whether or not you want your social networking profiles to remain. If you prefer to keep it as an online memorial, you might want to document your passwords, and also make your loved ones aware of your desires.

Although there is not a specific section for social networking profiles in Peace of Mind For You and Your Loved Ones: The Complete Guide to Organizing Your Estate, you could certainly document your passwords, and add a page indicating your instructions to your workbook. It would also be helpful to list contact information for each profile, whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, or any number of other sites. Be sure to update this list periodically.

Different sites have different policies and procedures on how to handle this, so make sure you learn about each sites policy. For example, Facebook requires family or friends to complete a Facebook form, including a link to an obituary or other information confirming a user’s death.

If you want your profiles to be taken down, then document that, too. Facebook has indicated it would honor requests to remove the profiles of a deceased user. Be sure to check each site’s policy.

How to handle the profiles of deceased users is a new area for social networking sites, and also a new area of estate planning. As with other aspects of your estate, it’s important to be aware of changes that require consideration, discussion with loved ones, and documentation.

Read the original Time magazine story.

Part of having peace of mind is being prepared for what life may bring you. No one is immune from experiencing an event that could lead to the loss of personal assets. Depending upon where you live, you may be susceptible to natural disasters such as hurricanes or tornados, earthquakes or mudslides. You may be the unfortunate victim of someone breaking into your home and stealing all your possessions, or you may have a fire.
   
Most people don’t really expect to be devastated by such events—including those who have unfortunately experienced them. Most people don’t think one of these events will really happen to them, and are surprised and unprepared when they do. What would you do if you somehow lost all of your household possessions? Do you have a plan?
   
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that your homeowner’s insurance will take care of everything. And it should, as long as you do your part.
   
Let me ask you a few questions. If you lost all of your possessions, would you be able to list everything you own, including brand, model, serial number, and cost? How much do you think you could remember? Will your insurance company just hand you a check based on your estimate, and when all is said and done will you have enough insurance? All of these are important questions to consider before disaster strikes.
   
When was the last time you took an inventory of your home? Most of us accumulate possessions throughout our lives, but we don’t bother to update our insurance policies. Should you suffer a disaster that causes you to lose all your possessions, you may not have enough insurance to cover them. And that can mean financial ruin. Keeping an up-to-date inventory of your home will allow you to update your homeowner’s policy as needed.
   
In addition, when you submit your claim the first thing your insurance adjuster will ask you is, “Do you have a home inventory?” If your answer is “yes,” you’ll be much more likely to recover the real value costs of all your possessions.
   
There are several ways to make a home inventory. You can keep a manual inventory of home possessions, by going from room to room and making a visual and written record of each item. Be sure to note the purchase price and current value of each item. That way, if the property is ever damaged by fire or other natural disaster, or is stolen, you’ll have documentation for settling insurance claims or taking a tax deduction.
   
Or, you can use a software program. One popular program that is very comprehensive, yet incredibly inexpensive, is Quicken Home Inventory Manager. The Quicken Home Inventory Manager allows you to:

1. Keep everything together in one place. A photo inventory tool lets you easily drag and drop photos into the program for faster claim processing and more complete recording. You can also scan and attach price tags, receipts, warranties, and appraisals. Proving what you paid for each item, and what it’s worth, ensures your insurance company pays what it should in the event of a loss.

2. Help expedite insurance claims. Providing your insurance company with proof of ownership helps eliminate back-and-forth hassles. Plus, a comprehensive record ensures you won’t forget to claim any items.

3. Monitor your insurance coverage. The program allows you to enter your coverage amounts for your insurance policies, and compare them to actual replacement costs.

4. Simplify your estate planning. Recording each item and noting its beneficiary can help communicate your intentions for estate planning.

5. Get reports with a mouse click. Unlike a manual system, the Inventory alue Summary shows you at a glance what the contents of your entire home are worth. The Inventory Detail Report gives you a detailed look at the information you’ve entered for each item.

6. Integrate your input with Quicken, giving you a more accurate picture of your net worth. You don’t need Quicken Personal Finance to be able to use Quicken Home Inventory Manager. But if you have it, you can import the value of your belongings into your Quicken software.

The Quicken Home Inventory Manager normally retails for just $29.99. But through this special offer, you can save 20% . . . AND get free shipping!

To buy now, or to learn more, go to www.tinyurl.com/39uhqm .

Whether you maintain your inventory manually or use the Quicken Home Inventory Manager, keeping an up-to-date inventory list is a very important task. It’s not that hard to do, and you’ll be glad you have it if you ever need it. That should give you some peace of mind.

Did you know that between one-quarter and one-third of all life insurance policies go unclaimed upon the death of the insured? It’s true. Many people have life insurance, but don’t inform their loved ones of the policy’s existence. As a result, hundreds of millions of dollars annually go unclaimed by beneficiaries who aren’t aware that a policy exists.

You would think that insurance companies would distribute what is rightfully due. Although they would like to do so, the burden is on family members to notify their insurance company when a policyholder dies. In the absence of such notification, the policy goes unclaimed. And virtually no effort is made to find lost beneficiaries.

Isn’t it ironic to think that someone has made an effort to plan for their loved ones’ financial security, but then fails to inform people that he/she has done so? Sadly, this scenario is more common than you think.

If a loved one has passed away, and you suspect that he/she had a life insurance policy, here are some tips to help you locate it:

- Look through the deceased’s financial records

If the insurance policy is still active, a premium notice will eventually come in the mail. In the meantime, look at check registers and cancelled checks for evidence of premium payments to a life insurance company. You can also review income tax records to see if interest income or expenses on a life insurance policy were reported.

Next, check any safe deposit boxes that you know about. Since life insurance policies are often placed in bank safe deposit boxes, a review of the box’s contents might reveal the existence of a policy.

- Consult current and prior financial advisors

The deceased individual’s attorney, accountant, and other financial advisors may be a potential source of information about life insurance policies. Be sure to review address books for names of insurance agents or insurance companies with whom the deceased conducted business. If other insurance policies were in place, it is possible the agent in charge of these policies may know about your loved one’s life insurance policy, too.

- Contact previous employers

Contact the employee benefits offices at your relative’s former employers. Former employers may have a record of past group policies, and indicate whether their late employee’s beneficiaries are eligible for life insurance proceeds.

- Review any life insurance applications

Typically, the application for each life insurance policy is attached to the actual policy. If you can find any life insurance policies, look for applications attached to them. The application will have a list of all other life insurance policies owned at the time the policy was applied for.

- Search unclaimed property databases

Since unclaimed life insurance proceeds often wind up in state unclaimed property funds, you can perform a search of the unclaimed property databases maintained by the individual states in which they or deceased family members resided. One such database can be accessed by visiting the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (www.unclaimed.org).

(Note: This database can be searched for other types of unclaimed assets, too. Banks, stockbrokers, utilities, and employers are all required to remit unclaimed funds to the government in a process known as “escheatment”. So, in addition to life insurance proceeds, an unclaimed property search might reveal other monies owed to the heirs of your deceased relative.)

Dealing with the grieving part of death is difficult enough without the practical challenges of sifting through years of built-up paperwork. Make life easier for your loved ones by keeping your own life insurance policies current. Also, make sure your beneficiaries know about the existence of such policies, and where your insurance information can be found.

Finally, talk with elderly parents or other relatives about life insurance policies survivors should know about. The conversation is sometimes awkward, but is necessary to ensure that families are prepared when this information is needed. Be sure to have that conversation now…before it’s too late.

I read last week that Miles Levin died of cancer, six days before his 19th birthday. I didn’t know Miles, and didn’t even know of him, until I read the story in the newspaper. He lived in a suburb of Detroit, though, not far from me.

Miles received national publicity, because he has been blogging about his journey since 2005, when he learn he had been stricken with a pediatric cancer called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. His writing ranged from adolescent topics such as school, his girlfriend and prom, to hope, dreams, life and death. By this summer, 15,000 readers read and responded to his blog entries. When he was too sick to write, and on the eve of his death, his mother updated the blog.

The entry that really stood out for me was written a few months ago, when Miles knew that his high school graduation would probably be his last milestone. “I can rest assured that even if I succumb to the rogue cells, I will leave behind a legacy of victory. Dying is not what scares me; it’s dying having had no impact. I know a lot of eyes are watching me suffer; and—win or lose—this is my time for impact.”

Wow. What a powerful, wise thought from this 18-year-old young man.

That part of the story caused me to think about my own impact, the legacy that I am leaving. How about you? Have you thought about your impact the world, about the legacy you’re leaving?

For all of us, this is our time for impact. Some of us, like Miles, will have an early indication that our time on Earth is coming to an end. For others, death will occur suddenly, with no warning.

We don’t know if tomorrow will come. But we can make an impact in the world, starting today!

P.S. You can find the article at www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/08/20/obit.miles.levin.index.html. To see Miles’ blog, go to www.carepages.com. You have to register, then type “LevinStory” in the page search field.

Welcome to the Legacy Publishing Group, home of the book Peace of Mind for You and Your Loved Ones: The Complete Guide to Organizing Your Estate. We hope this blog will provide you with lots of helpful tips, useful information, and unique insight to help you with your estate planning.