The beginning of the year is a great time to assess your financial situation and find out if there are things you can or should be doing differently. While a comprehensive list of ways to get your "financial house" in order would be based on your individual situation, below are some universal issues that everyone should consider as the new year begins:
Wills/Trust/Beneficiaries
The beginning of the year is a great time to make sure your estate planning documents are up to date. When reviewing beneficiary designation, don't forget:
- Group term life insurance policies at work
- Old 401 (k) plans
- Health care power of attorney
- Financial power of attorney
- Account Consolidation
It's a good idea to occasionally reassess your accounts and find out if consolidating those make sense. Sometimes you can eliminate or reduce costs via consolidation. Regardless, whoever settles your estate will be grateful. The less they have to track down the better
- Checking/savings accounts
- IRA/Roth IRA
- 401(K)
Make sure you haven't misplaced any money
Check the free government search for missing accounts, insurance settlements, etc. It's unlikely you'll uncover much of anything, but you never know.
- Update your passwords
- Compile a non-electronic list of your online user name and passwords.
- Keep your list in a safe location (e.g. safe deposit box) with instructions on how to access it.
- Upgrade your financial security
With the increase in data breaches and cyber-attacks, the probability that some aspect of your financial life will be exposed is ever-increasing. An identity theft protection service might help you sleep at night. Below is a sampling of companies that offer this service. we don't recommend one over the other:
Life changes. Dust off those documents and make sure they're still relevant to your current life situation.
If you need help with your review, contact Lake Ridge Bank to speak with one of our
Wealth Team experts.
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