Drowning in Paper

As a financial advisor, I ask my clients who are in 'couples-relationships' to share the tasks involved with bill payments, investment strategies, monitoring, organizing and collecting the paper related to those tasks (statements, reports and emails).

The reason is simple. Should one die, the one left with the assets is also left with bill payments and organizing of the paper. And inevitably they are caught short and have no clue where anything is or how things work.

This week I went out to lunch with a wonderful senior couple who are also my clients.

We chatted about several things, but one of the items that came up was how Mrs. H is becoming more involved with investment, cash flow, net worth and how to organize statements and paper as it comes in from the financial companies as she sees now, the need to take some responsibility for this element of the household in retirement.

I am now dealing with her as I would a 'new' (investment) client since I have dealt with Mr. H primarily for 'investment' in the past. She has been a client for just as long, but never has she had to concern herself with Taxation, Accountants, Investment Statements or household bill payment records since that was traditionally 'his territory'. Times and situations naturally do change.

The amount of paper coming in from mutual fund companies at year end is significant .

Further, she is coming to terms with the inflow of statements on bill payments as well. Yes I know about on-line banking, however, the statements from the household cost factors still come in. Mr.H. had always dealt with these in files and filing cabinets. This is not wrong, but there is a tendency for receipts and statements to get lost in files over time.

I recommended something that seems to work for many of my clients who are in business.

For your investment statements, written investment communications, investment e-mails etc, have a 3inch binder and 3-holed punch. Anytime you get a statement or any investment paper, get it out of the envelope as quickly as possible -the same day as you receive it, 3-hole punch it and then put on top of the last paper in the binder the binder. In this way, you have an ongoing story and can quickly look back to see what values you had before compared to now and can keep all the investment related stuff together.

If you deal with an investment advisor who is with a dealer or single 'captive' dealer company, then use the quarterly reports (for mutual funds) or monthly reports (for stock) as your check list to understand the 'geography' of your investments, since your advisor may use many different fund companies for various specialized investment types.

As for household receipts, have a 2 inch binder that has 12 plastic folders for each month and collect the monthly bank machine slips, or any other tax related receipts and put them into this month's plastic 3 ring transparent envelope. At year end - pass it to the accountant and let him or her deal with it.

A book keeper or accountant is a great tool to have. But getting him or her the right paper data will be a big help. At least you don't have to blame yourself for the tax messes and it is time well saved for going for nice long walks, yoga, Tai Chi and staying in shape. In short, more quality time can be spent with your 'significant-other' while eliminating topics of conflict.