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Second story, I told this in part in the introduction. Several years ago I had a client, self-made, independently wealthy. Lived alone. His wife had died years before and they had no children. But they had nieces and nephews they loved and he left his estate to them. That was wonderful except. Whenever they encouraged him to put things in order, he would always say, "Everything is in the folder. When I die, look in the folder, and everything is in there." After he died, we search high and low. The house, the car, the attic. No folder. We knew the estate was large but we had no idea where everything was. We had to backtrack through the CPA and his old tax returns to find out which stocks paid dividends...then write to those companies. We wrote to banks and stock brokers and asked if they had accounts for him. It was a mess..it took years to finish....and all because we could not find the folder.
Lesson: Make the list...and then make sure your family knows where the list IS!