Living an Organized Life

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Joe Hearn, a financial planner based in Omaha, Nebraska, offers six tips for preparing for a disaster.

1. Put together a plan. Aggregate documents in a grab-and go waterproof case that you can take with you when you evacuate prior to a storm or impending disaster. The case should contain important financial, legal, insurance documents, emergency cash, and personal information such as a birth certificate or passport. Evacuate with all the pieces you’ll need to rebuild your life.

2. Inventory your home’s contents, room by room. You’ll need an accurate accounting of your personal assets should you need to file a home insurance claim.

3. Make sure your beneficiary information is up-to-date. Lives and relationships change (divorces, deaths, etc.).

4. As a general rule, do not keep anything in your bank safe-deposit box that you may need in an emergency, such as a power of attorney. Also, the safe-deposit box of a deceased person is often sealed at the time of death. Therefore, do not keep items in your box your heirs or personal representatives may need right away, such as medical or financial power of attorney.

5. If you want to store your data offsite, you could leave copies of documents with people you trust, but use an alternative geographical site. If you live in Miami, for example, it wouldn’t make sense to leave your documents with a neighbor. Your brother based in Portland Oregon, however, might be the right choice.

6. For the technologically savvy, flash drives or other removable hard drives work well for removing important data from your computer. Caveat: Ensure that you have adequate firewall and virus protection to avoid the horror of having your vital information getting in the wrong hands.

Hearn is the co-author of "If Something Happens to Me," (http://www.ifsomethinghappenstome.com) a workbook and waterproof grab-and-go case that helps you organize your financial and legal affairs.

By Anonymous, at 1:40 PM  

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