Don't
Put Off Planning for the Worst
You're
young and running a business that is absorbing all your time --you're not
thinking about not being here. But you should be. There's a new app that
organizes critical documents for the just in case scenario.
It's always a little risky for an old guy like
me to make a reference to something from my youth - it typically draws blank
stares, smirks and the occasional rolling of eyeballs - but I'm hopeful that
when I say that most entrepreneurs are worse off than the shoemaker's kids, the
allusion isn't totally lost on younger readers. Just to be sure, the tale has
it that the poor old shoemaker was always so busy tending to the shoes of
others that he neglected the footwear of his own kids, who walked around with
holes in their soles. Today's kids, often equally ignored, are more likely to
have holes in their souls, rather than their sneakers, but that's a topic for
another day.
Entrepreneurs often do an amazing job of
taking care of their businesses and attending to every detail, but in the rush,
and because they're convinced that they're immortal, forget to pay attention to
some of the most critical and essential concerns in their personal lives. You'd
be absolutely amazed, for example, at how many men and women running successful
startups in their late 20s and early 30s (with or without kids) have no life
insurance. It's not that they don't know that it's stupid and irresponsible not
to provide for their families or that they can't afford it. They never get
around to doing it until, in too many cases, it's too late.
Adequate life insurance is actually only a
small part of the bigger problem. Entrepreneurs of all ages suffer
from the same blind spots and short-sightedness. They're so totally swept up in
today's rush and crush that they rarely give five minutes thought to tomorrow
and, most importantly, to what would happen to their spouses and kids if they
weren't there. If you're reading this and you are foolish enough to think for a
minute that you've got this problem covered, think again. Passwords, as an example, are
just the very tip of the iceberg.
The list of things that need to be immediately
addressed and attended to in the event of an unexpected death or incapacitation
is enormous and, by the way, not limited to concerns regarding your spouse and
kids. Having an attorney, an accountant, an executor/executrix and a will turns
out to be just table stakes in the preparation race, because the more pressing
and critical concerns relate to the million day-to-day things that we all take
for granted until the dam breaks.
Add to the list: access for dozens of key
accounts, financial details, medical files and information, investments and
partnerships, mortgages and deeds, insurance (cars, home, umbrellas, jewelry,
etc.), education expenses for the kids, utilities and subscriptions, credit
cards (including autopay accounts), taxes and tax returns (state, federal, real
estate, etc.), vehicles (owned and leased), health care records, social
security, Medicare, cemetery plots and funeral arrangements, etc.
And, for many of us in the "sandwich"
generations -- squeezed financially between kids and parents -- even if
you've got things reasonably well in hand for yourself (highly doubtful), the
lack of preparation and documentation regarding your parents' states of affairs
is an even more daunting prospect. Yet this is a project that may well plop
itself in your lap at any time in the near future. That's the problem with the
future - it has a nasty habit of arriving before we're ready for it. Getting
ready, according to no less an authority than Henry Ford, is the secret to
success. He may have been a bigot, but he got that right.
I'm happy to report that help is at hand if
you're prepared to make the modest investment of time required to get the
process started. There are various flavors of solutions - many focused on
funeral preparation like Cake or Lantern - and some like EverPlans, which are
now tied to larger life insurance companies. The one that I find most
comprehensive was started -- as you might imagine -- based on personal
experience and the recognition that the founder, just like the rest of us, was
grossly unprepared for any kind of catastrophic life cycle event.
The nice thing is that it's a simple iPhone
app called Paperwork that provides as
close to a fully comprehensive solution as I have seen anywhere, but lets you
get started by doing as much or as little as you like and then building from
there. I can tell you though that it's seductive and a little sneaky in a good
way -- especially for Type A entrepreneurs -- because once you do get
rolling and start adding material and important parts of your life to the file,
the temptation to put everything into the system as soon as possible is almost
irresistible.
Entrepreneurs aren't good at doing much of
anything halfway, especially when they're doing for themselves and for their
families as well. In for a penny, in for a pound. It feels a little like
deciding that -- because it's midnight and you can't keep your eyes open -- you
should leave an uncompleted jigsaw puzzle with just a couple of dozen pieces to
go sitting there on the table taunting you. We both know you're way too
compulsive to do anything like that. And, of course, in this case, it's for an
especially good cause.
So, take a little time (now's a great
opportunity) and do something nice and important for your spouse, parents and
family. Check out Paperwork and organize your life now while you can. You can
thank me later.
MAY 4, 2021