Letter from a Widow who is a Chartered
Accountant
There are certain basic aspects of our financial life which we
take too much for granted. For instance, location of our important documents, nomination status of our investments, bank accounts and insurance policies,
will planning,etc. But just one question
makes these issues all the more significant: What if I am not there tomorrow
for my loved ones?
Just take a minute over this question. Then further ask yourself
the following questions:
· Have I kept all my important financial
documents at one central location? If yes, have I communicated this to my
family members?
· Have I bought life insurance to secure my
family responsibilities that include household expenses, children’s future
education expenses, outstanding loans,etc.
· Do I remember about the nomination status of
my old investments?
· Is my
spouse just a nominee or a joint holder of my bank accounts and investments?
·
Have I prepared a will?
If the answer to most of the above questions is in the negative,
then you need to work on these issues and ensure that in your absence, your
family members do not have to go through the financial and legal hassles.
Financial planners usually take care of this basic issues of
due-diligence which are otherwise
commonly ignored by the general public.
I am sharing with you all a letter from a widow who recently lost her
husband in a road accident. It describes her struggle in coping with financial
and legal matters in his aftermath and offers lessons which she has learnt the
hard way. It aptly highlighs the importance of financial and estate planning.
Excerpts from the letter:
We always
believe we will live forever. Bad things always happen to others.
Only when
things hit us bang on your head you realise…Life is so unpredictable…
My husband was an IT guy…all techie…And I
am a chartered accountant…Awesome combination you may think…
Techie guy
so everything is on his laptop…his to do list…his e-bill and his bank
statements in his email…He even maintained a folder which said IMPWDS…wherein
he stored all login id and passwords for all his online accounts…And even his
laptop had a password… Techie guy so all the passwords were alpha-numeric with
a special character not an easy one to crack…Office policy said passwords
needed to be changed every 30 days…So every time I accessed his laptop I would
realise it’s a new password again…I would simply opt for asking him ‘What’s the
latest password’ instead of taking the strain to memorise it.
You may
think me being a Chartered Accountant would means everything is documented and
filed properly…Alas many of my chartered accountant friends would agree that
the precision we follow with our office documents and papers do not flow in to
day to day home life…At office you have be epitome of
Reliability/Competent/Diligent etc but…at home front there is always a
tomorrow…
One fine
morning my hubby expired in a bike accident on his way home from office…. He
was just 33…His laptop with all his data crashed…everything on his hard disk
wiped off…No folder of IMPWDS to refer back to…His mobile with all the numbers
on it was smashed…But that was just the beginning…I realised I had lot to
learn…
Being chartered
accountant helped in more ways than one but it was not enough…I needed help…His
saving bank accounts, his salary bank accounts had no nominee…On his insurance
his mom was the nominee and it was almost 2 years back she had expired… but
this was just a start…I didn’t know the password to his email account where all
his e-bill came…I didn’t know which expenses he paid by standing instructions…
To read the full
letter, click on the link below:
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