Get It Together: Organize Your Records So Your Family Won't Have To

Everything you need to get organized

Do your loved ones know where to find your insurance policies, passwords, title to your car, real estate deeds, health care directive, or even your will?

If you’re like a lot of people, you keep important information—from automated bill-pay details to passwords to the location of important documents—in your head or stashed in the odd desk drawer. Unfortunately, this disorganization will cause hassles for those who someday take care of you or your estate.

Get It Together is a guide and resource to help you gather your records and prepare important documents. With it, you create an organizer for you and a road map for your survivors. It provides a complete framework to help you and others keep track of:

• secured places and passwords
• employment and business records
• bank, brokerage, and retirement accounts
• personal property and real estate records
• dependent children, pets, and livestock
• insurance policies
• tax records
• estate planning documents
• funeral arrangements
• letters to loved ones

The workbook is comprehensive, yet straightforward. In the first half, you’ll find the pages to create your personal planner. In the second half, you’ll find step-by-step instructions and helpful resources to guide your completion of each section. Examples of these sections are: How Durable Powers of Attorney for Finances Work; Types of Memorial Services; Choosing Your Executor or Successor Trustee; Avoiding Probate for Bank and Brokerage Accounts; and Leaving Your Vehicles to Others.

You will also find direction for:

• safely storing your completed planner
• maintaining your planner over time, and
• talking with loved ones about accessing your planner when the time comes.

Your purchase includes downloadable forms to make your planner. If you like, you can download Get It Together’s electronic files to create your planner. After saving the files to your computer, you will complete, print, and assemble the sections to create your personal planner. Later, when you want to update a section, you can simply modify the file on your computer.
This workbook provides a complete system for structuring and organizing your information and documents into a records binder. For your ease, a companion Binder & Tab Set is also available. To purchase, search in "All Departments" for "get it together binder and tab set."

Melanie Cullen holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. She has served in executive management and business consulting in support of technology, distribution operations management, and strategic management.

Melanie enjoys the blessings of Get It Together, relying on her own personal planner for many years. She rests easy knowing that its road map will bless her loved ones when the time comes. She wishes the same for you and yours.

Shae Irving has written and edited for Nolo since 1994, specializing in estate planning and family law issues. She has written or co-written books and software, including Prenuptial Agreements: How to Write a Fair and Lasting Contract, Living Wills and Powers of Attorney for California, and Nolo's Quicken WillMaker Plus software. Shae graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.