Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

Disclosure

  • Home
  • Your Survival
    • Special Report: FOOD SHORTAGE: Crazed Hoarding Is Not Preparing
    • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
    • Constitutional Carry
    • EMP Threat
    • Tucker Explains
    • Newport Gas Outage
    • Water
      • Emergency Water Storage
      • Let There Be Water
    • Get Your Gun and Your Training Now
    • Satellite Phones
    • Navy SEAL Survival Kit
  • Your Money
    • Coronavirus Infects Stock Market
    • Looking for a Better America
    • You Invest, They Win
    • Where to Keep Your Cash
    • Paris
    • How to Buy a Boat
    • Dead or Alive? The Future of Long-Term Investing
    • Is Vanguard too Big?
    • Cryptocosm and Life After Google
    • The Last Intelligence Report
    • The Truth Behind the S&P 500
    • RAGE Gauge
    • How Many “Retirees” Will Keep Working?
    • Your Retirement Life
    • You’ll Love This if You’re Dreaming of an Active Retirement Life
  • Weapons
    • Self Defense
    • Every Family Should Own at Least One Shotgun: Here Are Three
  • About Me
    • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
    • Preparing for Times Like These
    • My Videos/Pics
    • Music
      • RIP Neil Peart: You Will Always Be Remembered as a “Modern-Day Warrior”
    • Your Survival Guy: Make Your Bed and The Hero Code
  • You
    • Our Cabin on Kodiak, Alaska
    • If You Are in Pain, this May Help. It Helped Me.
    • How to Save for a Grandchild
    • FIRE! Financial Independence, Retire Early
    • Compound Interest
    • Arithmetic of Portfolio Losses
    • Maximum Portfolio Withdrawal Rate
    • An Efficient Frontier
    • Retirement Compounders
    • Counterbalanced Total Returns
  • Survive & Thrive
    • February 2023: 4 Life Changing Words: “You Should Try This”
    • January 2023: Stacking Wood and Compounding Money
    • December 2022: Your Survival Guy Prefers Bombardier’s Global Express 7500
    • November 2022: Arriving in Style at Le Bristol Hotel, Paris
    • October 2022: Sink Your Teeth into These Bond Yields
    • September 2022: Do You Have the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?
    • August 2022: “Watch This Boat off Our Stern,” My Dad Said “He’s Coming in HOT”
    • July 2022: MONEY TALKS: Your Survival Guy’s Best Service in Paris
    • June 2022: “I’ve Been with Richard Young for Over 30 Years Now”
    • May 2022: Survive “If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail”
    • April 2022: Dream On! Fishing the Double Down in Key West
    • March 2022: Your Survival Guy Hears the Craziest Investing Stories
    • February 2022: Your Survival Guy’s 2022 Super States
    • January 2022: The Least Affordable Housing Market in the U.S.
    • December 2021: Listen Your Survival Guy is not “Mr. Peanut”
    • November 2021: Joe Biden is Weaponizing Your 401(k) Against You
    • October 2021: Time to Get Your Lazy Cash Off the Couch
    • September 2021: What’s Your Survival Guy Investing in Right Now?
    • August 2021: To Where Will You Flee?
    • July 2021: This Bubble’s Popped Baby
    • June 2021: Your Survival Guy’s Summer Job, Inflation & You
    • May 2021: You’re Telling Me Friends Ask You This Question
    • April 2021: Is There One Best Place in America for ‘Liberty Retirees?’
    • March 2021: America’s Growth Corridors
    • February 2021: Troops in D.C. & Your Authoritarian Virtual Panopticon
    • January 2021: Are You Ready for The Great Reset?
    • December 2020: Disaster Prep in Our Newport Bunker and Your Survival
    • November 2020: Election 2020 Edition: Stock Market is Predicting a Trump Win
    • October 2020: You Invest They Win, AGAIN
    • September 2020: Proud to be an American: Pro-Trump Parade Turns Rhode Island Red
    • August 2020: The Clock is Ticking: You Must Protect Your Family
    • July 2020: What Will Her Life Be Like Now?
    • June 2020: Your Survival Guy’s Home (and Money) Protection Plan
    • May 2020: Future Look at Covid-20, or the Next Deadly Virus
    • April 2020: Only Trump Saw the Risk in America’s Relationship with China
    • March 2020: Coronavirus Infects Stock Market
    • February 2020: Escape the City: Live Small, Cheap, and Safe in America
    • January 2020: Is Your Cash Safe? Probably not This Safe
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • Welcome

Fidelity is #1: Meet FidSafe and Raise Your Family’s Level of Preparation

March 29, 2021 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By ESB Professional @ Shutterstock.com

UPDATE, 3.29.21: One of the best ways FidSafe can help your family is with useful estate planning document management tools. You can start out on FidSafe with their estate planning checklist, that helps you organize all your most important files the right way. There are many documents you’ll need to be fully prepared, including a last will and testament, durable power of attorney, trust documents, marriage licenses, vehicle titles, charitable wishes, deeds, and more. FidSafe helps you remember it all, keep it safe, and have it ready when needed.

Originally posted on September 24, 2020.

A valued client was telling me this week about how he’s preparing his family for when he dies. It’s not a pleasant topic, but neither is the prep work. Navigating a subject that guarantees all kinds of emotions takes time and effort.

My client is preparing his family with a dry run. They will receive a call, and then will need to navigate as if he’s no longer around. He’s using Fidelity to keep his family’s important documents and finances secure and accessible.

One way to organize your documents is by using FidSafe. Fidelity’s FidSafe “is the safe, easy, no-cost way to store, organize, and access digital copies of your family’s important documents.”

You can help decide if FidSafe is right for your family and learn much more about it by watching the videos below.

 

Read more about FidSafe by clicking here.

Action Line: Don’t wait to organize your affairs. Fidelity’s technology makes it easy. Find out why Fidelity is #1 by clicking here.

It’s Time to Get Your Emergency Documents in Order

It’s time to get your emergency documents in order. Laura Adams’ piece, published at Fidelity.com, explains five important ways you can protect your family by being prepared. Another way you can help your family prepare is by using FidSafe (see more on FidSafe below). Adams writes:

1. Last will

Your last will is a document that communicates your final wishes after your death. Every adult should have a will. Otherwise, the courts decide what happens to your possessions and who will take care of any minor children who survive you.

You don’t need a lawyer to create a will, but if you have a high net worth or many different types of assets, it’s a good idea to hire one. An excellent place to start is to create an inventory of what you own and what you’d want to happen to each item or category. You might have bank accounts, investments, vehicles, real estate and heirloom items that you want certain family members or friends to inherit.

You can list beneficiaries for specific items, such as who you want to receive your car, home or art collection. You could distribute values to particular people or organizations, such as 80% to your partner and 20% to a charity.

If you have minor children, be sure to name their guardian in your will, to protect them if you pass away before they become adults. You can also leave instructions for who should inherit your pets and digital assets, such as social media accounts and websites. You can include funeral instructions in your will, such as where you want to be buried.

Since someone must manage the legal details of your estate and carry out your final wishes, you should name an “executor” in your will. It could be your attorney or a family member or friend you trust to handle all the arrangements. Depending on the size of your estate, being your executor could be a challenging task. So be sure to name someone who’s willing and capable of doing the job.

If you already have a will, don’t forget to review it periodically. Certain life events—such as getting married, divorced, having a child and losing a family member—may make updates necessary.

Having a will should give you peace of mind that your wishes will be carried out after your death. But it also makes your passing easier on those you love. It can help your surviving family have clarity about managing your estate and even avoid disagreements.

2. Living will

In addition to a last will, you also need a living will, which details your wishes for end-of-life care. It provides instructions for your doctors and family about how to make critical decisions if you face death.

For instance, if you were unresponsive for an extended period or in the final stages of a terminal condition, your living will would indicate if you’d want to extend your life by artificial means or die without any medical intervention.

3. Health care proxy

Another emergency is getting a severe illness or being in an accident that leaves you mentally incapacitated. You can select a health care proxy, someone you authorize to make critical medical decisions for you.

Consider who you’d trust with your care if you couldn’t make decisions on your own, and discuss your wishes with them.

4. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) release

Your medical privacy is protected by HIPAA, which means some hospitals won’t allow medical professionals to disclose any information about you, even to your health care proxy. To make sure your family or proxy can manage your healthcare in an emergency, create a medical privacy release.

5. Power of attorney (POA)

The last emergency document you should have is a power of attorney, which allows another person to stand in for you if you need help managing financial decisions or legal affairs.

For instance, you can use a durable power of attorney any time you’re not capable of completing a critical task, such as filing taxes or making an insurance claim. You can also create one or more limited powers of attorney, which name people to act on your behalf for specific transactions during a limited period, such as selling your home.

Having a POA is how your finances can get handled if you become incapacitated, are unavailable or don’t have time to manage them yourself.

The best places to keep your emergency documents Once you have emergency documents, it’s critical to keep the originals safe, such as in your attorney’s office, a bank safe deposit box or a fireproof safe at home. Make copies to store at home in case you need them quickly. Also, scan and upload your legal documents to the cloud, using a service such as Google Drive or Dropbox.

Emergency documents for married couples

If you’re married, your spouse may be able to make some emergency and legal decisions for you; however, both of you could die or become incapacitated at the same time. Consider what would happen if you needed to sell jointly owned assets, such as your home or investments, where each of you were required to authorize the transaction.

To avoid potential legal restrictions during a difficult time, married couples and domestic partners should give each other power of attorney. Each person also needs their own last will, living will, health care proxy and HIPPA release.

After an emergency happens, it’s usually too late to make many critical decisions. So, do yourself and your family a favor by getting all your legal documents in place now. It’s much easier to prepare for a potential disaster than to recover from one that you didn’t see coming.

The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)

  • Your Retirement Life: Adventure Awaits - February 3, 2023
  • Early Advice from Her Dad on Tipping at Charlie Trotter’s - February 2, 2023
  • Treasury Bonds Ready to Rock and Roll - February 2, 2023
  • Survive and Thrive February 2023: 4 Life Changing Words: “You Should Try This” - February 1, 2023
  • Tom Brady Retires, Again. Should You? - February 1, 2023

If you enjoyed this post, email it to a friend:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp

Related Posts

Money 101

Trending

  • 4 Life Changing Words for Your Survival Guy: “You Should Try This”
  • Early Advice from Her Dad on Tipping at Charlie Trotter’s
  • Welcome to Hotel California, Where You Can Never Leave
  • Your Survival Guy's 2022 Super States
  • America's Super States and Stocks that Respect YOU
  • The Rich Seek More from Bank Accounts
  • Where Can You Survive a Nuclear Attack in America?
  • Biden Administration Destroying Retiree Fiduciary Protections
  • Survive and Thrive February 2023: 4 Life Changing Words: “You Should Try This”
  • California's Wealth Tax Will Drive Out Remaining Rich Residents

Must Reads

  • Investment Advice: Sticking with the Four-Year-Olds
  • BLOCKBUSTER SPEECH: Congressman Defends the Second Amendment
  • BLACKROCK’S BITCOIN-ESG PARADOX: You Can’t Have It All
  • Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Most People Can’t Handle Making Money This Way
  • Early Advice from Her Dad on Tipping at Charlie Trotter’s
  • What Kind of Life Are You Investing For?
  • 4 Life Changing Words for Your Survival Guy: “You Should Try This”
  • INTRUSIVE GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE: Does This Make You Feel Safer?
  • BIDEN-FLATION: Here’s Why Prices Are Up At Your Favorite Restaurant
  • “Talk to Me, Goose!” Time Flies in Top Gun: Maverick
Only if You’re Serious
Crazed Hoarding Is not Preparing
How to Save Rainwater Effectively
Your Survival Guy in Paris
Your Survival Guy's Fishing Stories
Financial Independence, Retire Early
Money 101
Pandemic Creates Virtual Panopticon
Emergency Water Storage
Find Freedom in America
Second Amendment
How Can You Save Money for Your Grandchild
Great Reset
See Who's Missing the Boat
Richard  Young Reports
How You Can Save Money for Your Grandchild
Why Fidelity is Number One
The Best States for Survival
You Invest, They Win
Escape the City
Why Vanguard is Too Big for YOU
Island Life

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.