1. Share your passwords with someone you trust (or write down in accessible, safe spot): Randy and I have always shared our passwords with each other, excluding work passwords. He has said many times that he is very thankful we did because otherwise he would not have been able to get back into his accounts. It was also very helpful to be able to log into his accounts to notify various people of what had happened.
2. Make sure your partner knows all bill information: Thankfully, I am the one in the family that does all of the financial stuff. This really made us realize that, if anything happens to me, Randy would have no idea what bills to pay when or how to log on to any of the accounts. I had started making a spreadsheet before the accident with websites and login instructions, but I hadn't ever gotten around to finishing.
3. Make sure you partner has a name and number of someone at your workplace to contact: Since Randy had moved up to Everett, I knew from trying to call him the week before that on the voicemail of his new number, the person who had it before had left a voicemail that stated their new number. Otherwise, I would not have had anyway of contacting anyone at Boeing. I would have had to wait for someone to try to call him.
4. Establish Power of Attorney: No matter what your age, everyone should have a designated Power of Attorney. I ran into a few roadblocks because of not having this. Randy had 2 accounts that I wasn't on because we had never gotten around to putting me on them. Even though Washington is mutual property state, companies will not give out information or discuss accounts with someone that is not listed on the account. This even included his disability claim ~ I could file the claim, but I couldn't discuss the status of it after it was filed until I got Power of Attorney.
5. Make sure your partner knows what benefits you have: I am on Randy's insurance, so I had the contact information for them to talk about medical insurance, but a lot of companies have other benefits out there, such as the TotalAccess for Boeing. Without the assistance of other Boeing employees, I wouldn't have known all that was out there.
1 comment:
Why is it that we learn about how our lives should be organized when it is the least convenient. One of the things you brought up about accounts and having to have Power of Attorney. Very commonly in people who marry later, you have bank accounts set up and continue to use them after marriage. However, what you do not do is get the other person's name on the account. Guilty. It took 20 years of marriage before my husband and I managed to get each others names on our Credit Union accounts. Make sure you do it on children's accounts also. You also need to have a will drawn up and look into different ways to protect your money should you loose a spouse. Don't foret there are 2 different types of Power of Attorney 1 legal and 1 medical.
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