Dear? Is that a deer? Legacy Planning – Preparing for the Unexpected. What to do now?
It is a beautiful day. You are driving down the road – day dreaming: You have worked hard in your business. You are proud of how you have grown over the years from an apprentice to an expert in your technical skills. No one can surpass your ability to close deals and drive revenue. You realize you need to develop your team around you…
Suddenly you hear a scream. You can't see! Sounds of crunching metal and breaking glass fill the air. A heavy brown mass smashes into your face and two jack hammers drive into your face and neck. You begin to spin erratically and WHAM! – your car slams to a stop. You wake up days later to find out a full grown buck leapt up in front of your car, slid across the hood, broke through the windshield and, in a mad desperate effort to get away, kicked you with its powerful rear hooves. You will never work again.
My colleague, Arlin Sorensen, has written about legacy planning in the context of the unexpected. What can you do to prepare? What can you do to ease the burden of your loss?
Two Legacy Planning Options: Easy, Private, and Inexpensive or Complex, Public, and Expensive
Which option do you prefer? One of the first practical steps you can take now is have powers of attorney in place. Powers of attorney are simple legal documents that name someone to act on your behalf when you are unable. They may have different names across the states, but there are two basic types.
- The General Power of Attorney authorizes someone to take action on your behalf with respect to financial and asset management issues.
- The Health Care (or Medical) Power of Attorney authorizes someone to take action on your behalf with respect to personal health care issues.
The first takes care of your money and stuff. The second takes care of your body. These legal documents are easy, private and inexpensive to implement. Go see your attorney.
If you do not have these powers of attorney and you become disabled, your loved ones may have to open up a formal legal custodianship to manage your financial and business matters and a formal legal guardianship to care for and support your life and body. These can require more attorney time and court supervision with its attendant time and costs. These become complex, public and expensive.
Do not wait! Start today!
What Else Can You Do Now?
Train your replacement. Build your leadership team. You can't sustain your company on your own. If you have not built capability and competency into your leadership team you are in trouble. Do not wait! Start today!
Develop a business continuity plan. Can you identify a trusted professional colleague who can come in and help run your company in your absence? For those of you in HTG donate to Hands That Give and be a part of that disaster relief program. This brings your family, leadership team and employees stability and time to get things in order for your replacement. Beyond that, you need to be spending quality time alone or with your leadership team thinking, talking and building a business plan which is designed to ensure successful continuation of your company. As needed, meet with your attorney. Do not wait! Start today!
Manage risk. Life insurance? Disability insurance? Keyperson insurance? Do you have these in place? If you don't have sufficiently deep cash reserves these insurance products can be important tools that complement or are essential to your business continuity plan. Schedule a meeting with your insurance agent to review your need for these. Do not wait! Start today!
Gather your documents and important data. Pull together names, account numbers, key contacts for your bank accounts, brokerage accounts, insurance policies, real estate holdings, bank safety deposit boxes, safe combinations, passwords and any other important assets and information you have. Put them in a three ring binder, spreadsheet or other place you prefer for collecting data. Tell some trusted person (or several) where this information is so they can quickly and easily find it and access it. Do not wait! Start today!
Listen, if you are disabled or die tomorrow it will be too late. Today there may be a buck in a ditch, lying in wait for you to drive by!
Oh, and buckle up.