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FAQs
It is a step-by-step guide to collecting and organizing your important papers and information - for yourself and for your loved ones. It is an organizer for you and an eventual road map for your loved ones. This book provides the solution to these thorny questions: Where do you store your important records - birth certificate, title to your car, insurance policies, will, trust, living will, final arrangements? And how will your survivors find those records - and everything else they'll need - when they need it?
Similar to exam or tax materials, the book has two parts: the guide and the planner. The guide provides direction for completing your planner, while the planner is a series of tables. The planner is printed in the book and is also available electronically, downloaded from the publisher's website to your computer. The eForms download key is printed in the Get It Together book.
You can file related materials - such as birth or marriage certificates, your Social Security card, insurance policies, real estate documents, your medical directives, will, living trust - with your planner. Insert your planner pages into a binder with tab dividers, pocket and sheet protector pages, and a binder pouch or two.
This book is for anyone who wants to get their personal records in order - especially:
- young adults, newlyweds, and new parents,
- those planning travel or deployment,
- those facing illness, and
- seniors.
Twenty-eight topics are covered, encompassing all of your important records. The topics are presented in a sequence that will be helpful to your survivors.
- Letter to Loved Ones: A personal letter, written to those you expect will survive you. The letter is the first thing your survivors will read when they turn to your planner after your incapacity or death.
- Instructions: Directions for the first few days, weeks, and months following your incapacity and death, referring your loved ones to each section of your planner as needed.
- Biographical Information: Facts and vital statistics about your life and the lives of those closest to you, including your mother, father, spouse, and children - and the locations of important documents such as birth, marriage, and death certificates.
- Children: A list of the children in your care, describing the guardians and property managers you have named and contact information for others who provide care - relatives, teachers, medical professionals, and so on.
- Others Who Depend On Me: A list of people other than children for whom you regularly provide care, including what you do to help them and contact information for others who can help.
- Pets and Livestock: Instructions and wishes for the care of your animals.
- Employment: Important information about your current and former jobs, including benefits and the location of related documents.
- Business Interests: A list of businesses in which you have an ownership interest, including the locations of related documents.
- Memberships: A summary of your memberships, including contact information and any accrued benefits.
- Service Providers: Contact information for your current service providers, including medical, dental, personal care, property care, and others.
- Health Care Directives: Information about the legal documents that set out your wishes for medical treatment and name someone to make medical decisions if you are unable to speak for yourself.
- Durable Power of Attorney for Finances: Information about the legal document that names someone you trust to handle money matters if you are incapacitated.
- Organ or Body Donation: Wishes and plans for donation of your body, organs, and tissues, including the location of related documents.
- Burial or Cremation: Wishes and plans for burial or cremation, including the location of any related documents.
- Funeral and Memorial Services: Wishes and plans for a viewing, visitation, wake, funeral, memorial, or other service, including the locations for related documents.
- Obituary: An obituary you've written for a newspaper or other publication, or details you'd like your survivors to include if they write an obituary for you.
- Will and Trust: Information about your will and other estate planning documents you've made, including trusts. Here, you can also include details about any documents that affect how your property will pass after death, such as a prenuptial agreement or marital property settlement agreement.
- Insurance: A description of insurance policies that you own or that cover you, including the location of the policy documents.
- Bank and Brokerage Accounts: A list of your bank and brokerage accounts, including the location of related documents.
- Retirement Plans and Pensions: Information about any retirement accounts you own or pension benefits to which you are entitled, including the locations of related documents.
- Government Benefits: Information about Social Security or other government benefits to which you are entitled.
- Credit Cards and Debts: A list of your credit cards, outstanding debts, and automatic bill-pay arrangements.
- Secured Places and Passwords: All the places you keep under lock and key (or protected by password), including safe deposit boxes, property and vehicle alarms, and password-protected software or devices.
- Taxes: Information to help your survivors complete your final tax returns, including the locations of related documents
- Real Estate: Information about real estate that you own, lease, or rent, including the locations of related documents.
- Vehicles: A list of your vehicles, including locations of related documents.
- Other Income and Personal Property: Information about sources of income and important items of personal property not described elsewhere in your planner, including where the property is located and how you wish it to be handled upon your incapacity or death.
- Other Information: Anything else you want to include with your planner or that you want your caretakers or survivors to know.
For each topic, the guide contains relevant content, rich resources, instructions for completing the planner, and tips for maintaining your planner. The content includes, for example:
- Children: Guidance in arranging care for your children - including naming a personal guardian and property manager - and related information about wills, trusts, and insurance beneficiaries.
- Pets: Assistance in arranging future care for your pets, such as arranging an adoption through the SPCA, Humane Society, or a veterinary school, and setting up a trust for your pet's future care.
- Health Care Directives: Overview of the types of health care directives, how directives work, choosing your health care agent, what you can cover in your directives, and the duty of medical personnel to honor your directives.
- Retirement Plans and Pensions: Discussion of what happens to retirement accounts when the account owner dies, including the implications of probate, taxes, and naming beneficiaries.
- Secured Places and Passwords: Guidance in selecting what to store in your safe deposit box - so that your survivors can get to what they need when they need it.
- Real Estate: Overview of ways to own property (both sole and shared ownership), special rules for married couples, and differences between common law and community property laws.
- Vehicles: Tips for avoiding probate while leaving your vehicles to others, including transfer-on-death registration form.
Resources for each topic include online assistance and website articles, companies and non-profit groups, government agencies, software, and books. An appendix also provides assistance in finding a good expert when you need one - whether an accountant, financial planner, insurance agent, lawyer, or document preparer.
What are the steps to completing my personal planner?
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Get started…
- Set aside one-to two-hour windows.
- Read the two introductory chapters, About This Book and Completing Your Planner.
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Prepare planner pages…
- Using the workbook, make copies of planner pages (and use ink for your final copy), or
- Using the eForms, print planner pages and complete by hand, or simply complete each section on your computer, password-protect and save, then print.
- Get a planner binder…
- Get a binder with tab dividers.
- Add some pocket and sheet protector pages.
- Include a binder pouch or two.
- Store your planner securely…
- Use a fireproof, waterproof home safe.
- Store with your attorney - but only planner sections 18 through 28.
- Store in your safe deposit box - but, again, only sections 18 through 28.
- Skip around…
- Start with easiest or most important sections.
- Begin to collect related documents.
- Complete sections that apply to you, while skipping those that don't.
- Talk to loved ones - especially your agents, executor, and successor trustee - every year or so…
- Tell them of your personal planner.
- Describe the location of your planner and give them access instructions.
- And finally, update your planner…
- Note changes as they occur.
- Review entire planner each 12 months (or as needed).
How does Get It Together compare to other life organizers?
There are only a few life organizers that provide guidance for organizing your personal records. Only Get It Together delivers a complete package:
- A complete range of topics, encompassing all of your important records.
- A focus on your records for today - and just the information your survivors will need if you become incapacitated or when you die.
- An organized format, appropriately sequenced and indexed, both for you and for your survivors.
- Straightforward planner tables - comprehensive, yet easy to complete.
- Perforated planner pages in the printed book, so that you can place your completed pages in a binder with related materials.
- An eForms planner that can be customized to your personal situation - adding, deleting, and expanding the information according to your need.
- A user guide that is distinct from survivors' planner guidance, for clarity and ease of use.
- Robust resources for users who wish to get more information or assistance.
The Get It Together binder is a great place to store your planner and all your related materials - birth certificate, title to your car, insurance policies, health care directives, will, and more. With a binder, it's easy for you to organize and get to your records. And when the time comes, the binder is a portable reference for your family.
The three-inch binder comes with Mylar-reinforced white tab dividers, already set up for the 28 sections of your planner. "PLANNER" is printed down the spine, making it easy for you (and others, eventually) to find it.
The price of the Binder & Tab Set is $24.50 (effective November 1, 2010). We pay the sales tax, and shipping is free!
If you have questions, or if you are interested in quantity purchases, please contact Melanie Cullen.
What is the Companion Package?
The Companion Package includes both Get It Together (workbook with eForms), as well as the Binder & Tab Set, together in one complete, convenient, and discounted set.
The Companion Package is $41.00—that’s $36.50 for the set, plus $4.50 for shipping. This represents a 30% savings over buying individual products—and we pay the sales tax!
With your purchase, you receive an autographed copy of Get It Together. In addition, you can specify a free title-page inscription, handwritten by the author, with your personal message.
If you have questions, or if you are interested in quantity purchases, please contact Melanie Cullen.
Can I buy using USPS mail order?
You may order by USPS mail, if you prefer. Get It Together products are available in three configurations:
- Get It Together: Organize Your Records So Your Family Won't Have To - the complete workbook with eForms, autographed by the author (and including a free inscription, if you wish)
- Binder & Tab Set - the heavy-duty 3” binder with 28 Mylar-reinforced, white tab dividers, or
- Companion Package, the book and binder pairing—the complete workbook (autographed and including a free, optional inscription) with eForms, together with the Binder & Tab Set.
Click on BUY to see current prices.
With your purchase of the Get It Together workbook or the Companion Package, you receive an autographed copy of the book. In addition, you can specify a title-page inscription, up to 100 characters (letters, spaces, symbols), handwritten in the book by the author. Your inscription personalizes the book or Companion Package, making it a thoughtful and unique gift.
To order by mail, complete and send the ORDER FORM from the back of your Get It Together book—or send…
- Name and mailing address
- Telephone or email (for questions about your order), and
- Products and quantity ordered.
- OPTIONAL: If you are ordering books (either alone or with the Companion Package), you may include clearly written text for title-page inscriptions—up to 100 characters (letters, spaces, symbols)—to be handwritten in the book by the author.
—with a check or money order payable to Get It Together to:
- Get It Together, P.O. Box 4355, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Offers are available only in the U.S.
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