Planned Departure – Leave memories … not a mess

Planned Departure is all about planning well in life so that you leave memories and not a mess!

It is about starting the conversation and answering some important questions such as:

• Is your life plan ready?
• How do you want to plan for your family?
• Offer the best education?
• Or gift them happiness?
• Or hope things will eventually fall in place?
• Have you taken any financial advice?
• Do you have life insurance or critical illness cover?
• Or Do you have a Will in place?
• Have you started the important conversation?
• Such as where all your documents are?
• Or shared your secret recipe?
• Does your family know your assets and investments?
• Or your liabilities!
• Are they aware of important online accounts?
• Can your family find everything they need?
• Even when you are not around?
• Will you leave them CHAOS ? Or Mess?
• Or Will you leave them memories?
• Have you planned for everything? or anything?

Now you can!!

With Planned Departure,

• Organise scattered information in one place.
• Leave clear instructions.
• Put everything in order.
• Ensure everything is there even when you are not.

We can help you avoid the mess

So that you can focus on creating memories.
Planned Departure – Leave memories… not a mess!

Sign up now and start planning.

Types of Wills … Let’s Break it down

Over the next few blogs we will endeavour to shed some light on the different types of Will options available in a bid to help you decide which works best for you.
A good place to start is with couples Wills, of which there are three different types, all quite similar to each other. Joint Wills, Mutual Wills and Mirror Wills

A Joint Will is a single document that two people or more agree to draw up which generally relates to sharing their property in a particular way.

This kind of Will is particularly common amongst married couples.
These Wills are normally identical or very similar and give common benefits. They tend to dictate that the surviving spouse should inherit all their property if they die first and vice versa. After the death of the second spouse, the property is shared as specified in the document. The law treats a Joint Will as being two or more separate Wills.

Mutual Wills on the other hand occur where two or more testators make separate Wills or make a joint Will and in doing so agree to confer on each other reciprocal benefits or agree to confer benefits on the same beneficiaries.

These kind of Wills have four basic requirements and a strict standard for enforceability:

1.      The agreement must be made in a particular form.
2.      The agreement must be contractual in effect.
3.      The agreement must be intended to be irrevocable.
4.      The surviving party must have intended the will to reflect the agreement.

A Mutual Will creates a binding agreement between the two parties which prevents the survivor from changing their Will and disposing of the estate in a different way. Mutual Wills are preferred by couples in a second marriage with children from a previous relationship or marriage.

Mirror Wills are exactly that, they “mirror” each other. The terms generally are similar and complementary. This is a legal document that allows a couple (married, civil partners or unmarried) to write down their wishes for when they pass away.

In all three cases these types of Wills are convenient and cost effective and they ensure that spouses are well taken care of if one dies and that the estate is passed to his children at death.

 

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To Will or not to Will?

(DIY)Do-it-yourself may work in various aspects of our lives like plastering your living room or cleaning the dust out of your laptop.
Here are some interesting figures about Wills, DIY wills and the general attitude from the public towards them.

Children and the internet – What you didn’t know

The internet plays a major role in our lives on a day to day basis and that of our children without us realizing how long they spend online each day.

Whilst this might in itself not be a bad thing, the jury is still out on weighing the pros and cons. Key really is for parents to take responsibility of their children in terms of how they engage online.

Here are some facts and figures to show the visual seriousness of this online addiction.

Children and the internet – How safe are they?

No one seems too surprised by the fact that some 7.5 million users in the US alone violate Facebook’s member requirement every single day – simply by being under 13 years of age.

We have reached a stage in our digital era where digital consumers are increasingly starting younger. According to a study by the non-profit organisation, Joan Ganz Cooney Centre, more than two-thirds of 8-year-old children go online each day.

Whilst this might in itself not be a bad thing, the jury is still out on weighing the pros and cons. Key really is for parents to take responsibility of their children in terms of how they engage online.

Certainly this age of super connectivity has some drawbacks – from attention deficit, to lack of face to face engagement – having said that there are numerous positives from the way children can find out about the world around them, gain access to information, share, connect and engage – granted this is a whole new way of doing it but that does not mean it is all bad!

It is interesting to note that books were once considered bad for us – that they may indeed ‘brain wash us’. There are always two sides to any coin and the fact that we are neophobic by nature accounts for why we tend to be suspicious of any change in our lives.

Let’s focus instead on the benefits that digital offers us and ensure we keep our children safe as we would in any environment – familiar or otherwise!

 

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Photographic trends made possible because of Digitization

It is possible to take pictures anywhere and everywhere not just because its free, quick and effortless but because we can.

Social media pages and apps like Facebook,Instagram and Snapchat have taken advantage of this and are making billions.

When was the last time you took a picture and shared it with your friends or updated your Whatsapp, Facebook or Twitter display picture?

Its the era for the photographic generation. Agree or Disagree?

 

 

 

Picture trends made possible with Digitization…

In the past, when all we had was film photography, we had to be very selective of the kind of pictures we wanted to take. I’m sure there wouldn’t be half as many ‘selfies’ ‘photo bombs’ or ‘duck pouts’ as there are today. Images have a strong emotional factor, and emotions have a powerful pull on us as human beings.

It wasn’t that long ago that taking a photo involved substantial decision making. With a mere 24 or 36 shots on each roll, the expense limited us from wildly shooting away. Not to mention the actual insertion of the roll, the fact that one ray of sunlight would ruin the film. Then of course there was the cost of developing the film and the time it took to do so.

Now with digital cameras and technology there’s relatively no cost at all and it is immediate – don’t get me started on Polaroid cameras!

Our next evolution came rapidly too. Who would have thought, 15 years ago, that we would be taking quality photos using our phones?

As a matter of fact the digital camera was invented almost 40 years  ago,by an engineer at Eastman Kodak named Steve Sasson. The camera weighed 8 pound and recorded 0.01 megapixel black and white photos to a cassette tape. To images were stored as data on the cassette and played back by displaying the images on a television set. It probably seemed like science fiction back then!

Regardless of which era our photos record and which form they come in they will always be memories which we treasure. They capture time and give our future generations a glimpse of moments we wanted to capture. Whether in black and white, sepia or overexposed, they are very precious.

So the question is, if you misplaced your phone, your computer crashed or your house burned down would you lose all your photos? With our current ease for taking photos we have accumulated a huge visual memory bank which needs to be protected and managed.

Chances are you probably have more than one electronic gadget; mobile phone, computer, tablet, digital camera etc and on all these gadgets you have digital images stored.

It is easier to manage if all your pictures are stored in one place but how do we do that?

The first step…

If you haven’t done this already you can make it easier by setting your camera to the correct date and time. This allows your pictures to automatically be categorised which helps in organising your pictures.

Finding all your pictures…

It’s a good practice to go through all your stored images and delete the ones that are not needed. In fact delete them as soon as you have taken photos you don’t want to keep.

Use the right names and appropriate tags for your various folders. Example image:  20141012_093416 will be hard to place in a folder without viewing the actual image compared to image: Bella’s first school day.

Geo-tagging photos as they’re taken can also be a useful tool for helping to organise your digital pictures in advance.

Import all you pictures to one device, most likely a PC and create various albums based on the tags and names you chose.

Back up all your images onto an external drive but if you want to be safeguarded the ideal back up is via CD’s or DVD’s or in a cloud. Also,protect your images from hackers and identity thieves, switch off automatic backups on your phone or other device and add a watermark to your images.

And remember to protect your photos carefully – the recent picture hacking scandal from iCloud accounts is still fresh in our memories Apple iCloud leak and serves as a cautionary tale that sensitive photos are best stored in encrypted digital vaults.

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You need to Measure your Digital Assets

Five years ago, Jeremiah Owyang, a strategist with Forrester, left the company for pastures new. While this in itself was not unusual, Owyang’s departure turned out to be quite a loss for Forrester, much more so than it would have been say three years previously, when social media had not yet quite exploded and less so then than it would be now in 2014.

Because when Owyang left Forrester he took with him his digital identity.

The long tail effect of his personal blog alone was already massive as he had worked as a very thorough and systematic aggregator. Forrester, like most major companies back in 2009 had not yet measured the serious impact of such a departure.

Fast forward to 2014 and many organisations, particularly early stage startups and SMEs, are still taking their digital footprint for granted. There is a gaping void when it comes to companies properly securing and managing the succession planning side of their digital assets.

From a corporate perspective, the sudden loss of digital information goes beyond financial loss, it can also create an intangible loss of goodwill with customers, particularly if documented knowledge and insights are wiped out and sensitive trade information is revealed.

When Owyang left Forrester he did so in an organised manner. But imagine if the founder of a thriving business was suddenly cut down in his or her prime. All digital information is more likely than not going to disappear with them. From basic access information such as passwords and usernames through to vital documents, all locked in the cyber world and totally irretrievable.

This is why planning for the protection of all digital assets is now becoming a key imperative in all business and financial planning, and something which small businesses in particular need to give careful consideration to. Individuals and business owners alike must take greater responsibility in safeguarding and ensuring proper succession planning for their virtual data.

Different businesses will have their own unique digital footprints and assets, from customer data and crucial passwords to patents, presentations, white papers, and financial spreadsheets, so there is no one formula that fits all requirements. However, taking an inventory of all digital assets is the first step towards managing the issue at hand. This involves everything from where the assets are located, how they are accessed to who can access them. Creating a chain of trusted verifiers and ensuring all this information is contained in one place should the need arise is one of the best strategies.

Regardless of whether the digital assets can be measured as a tangible value or as a consequence of loss, the fact of the matter is that digital property is multi-faceted and needs to be stored and managed as carefully as traditional assets.

Where once companies were concerned with their carbon footprint, the new focus now needs to be on ensuring carefully regulated and documented digital footprint-planning.

 

Life Insurance – Are you covered?

Life insurance is believed to have originated in Rome and India and is based on the fundamental premise of securing and protecting loved ones from paying off debts and providing for family when the care provider is deceased.

It is a contract between an individual and an insurance company leaving detailed instructions on how the company should pay the policy holders’ when they pass away.

Of course if you are single with no dependents or elderly with children that do not need to be taken care of you are less likely to need a life insurance policy.

On the other hand if both you and your partner are employed it’s always good to set one up to guard against the unforeseen.

Taking preventative steps to ensure your loved ones are taken care of makes perfect sense but what are the disadvantages?

The life insurance acquisition process can be lengthy and at times complex. The purchase of life insurance based on whether it’s for a business or family requires careful consideration. And of course, there is a cost involved.

However on the plus side a life insurance policy can be exchanged for another life insurance policy without incurring taxation. Also the cash value grow tax deferred during the policy holder’s lifetime, and of course your family is protected.

The key reasons people opt for life insurance are to fund their children’s education. This is followed by covering any final expenses such as funeral costs, car payments and mortgage payments.

The two main types of life insurance cover are;

Term insurance

This type of cover can also be called level-term assurance. The payout would be the same no matter when the policyholder died during the term.

This is a very popular kind of cover because it pays out a lump sum or a monthly income if you die within a set period of time but if nothing happens to the policyholder it simply lapses and they get nothing in the end.

Whole-of-life cover

This is a life insurance policy that covers the policyholder for the insured’s whole life and requires (in most cases) premiums to be paid every year into the policy. The proceeds of the policy will usually go to the policyholder’s family or beneficiaries of their estate. These policies are more expensive than term assurance policies, which only pay out if you die within a certain timeframe.

Interested in getting one now, but don’t know how?

First you have to understand how the insurance premiums work. If you are likely to die in the near future you’ll have to pay more but the insurers look at certain factors which could affect your premium. These include your lifestyle, age, medical history and job.

There is a raft of choices these days for getting more information and costs, from your employer to cost comparison sites and your bank. Ask friends and family too as recommendations are often the best route to take.

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Advanced Directives : Being in control of your destiny continued …

Following on from last two week’s blog relating to the value of setting up an Advanced Directive, it is worth noting the 1990 Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) in the United States, which encourages everyone to decide now about the types and extent of medical care they want to accept or refuse if they become unable to make those decisions due to illness.

Taking responsibility for this type of information is not just about giving yourself more peace of mind, it also helps those closest to you should the unforeseen strike and breaks down the communication barriers between the patient, doctors and loved ones. It also serves as a proactive tool which prompts people to think about difficult topics and guides them once they have identified how best they wish to be treated.

Nowadays health care institutions are required to ask patients if they have an Advance Directive document or would like to fill one out, and in the UK there is also the Mental Capacity Act 2005 which is designed to protect people who can’t make decisions for themselves or lack the mental capacity to do so.

An Advance Directive tends to maximise the independence and comfort of patients and makes it easier for family members to know exactly what you would like without doubting or putting themselves in an awkward position.

Each form is different, clearly influenced by the individual and their preferences, based on religion, cultures and backgrounds.

In 2007 a woman in Canada gave birth to sextuplets which led to a battle between religion and medicine, between the children’s right to life and their parents’ right to practise their religious beliefs. Two of the babies, born 15 weeks early, died. The parents, who are both Jehovah’s Witnesses, refused to allow blood transfusions, in accordance with their faith, and three of the babies were taken into custody by social workers so they could be given the treatment.

Custody has now been returned to the parents, who have not been named, but they are angry at the intervention and have gone to court to prevent officials stepping in again. Read more …

All these factors are taken into consideration in creating an effective document tailored by the individual. We are all different and as such no two documents can be the same. Taking the time to discuss your preferences helps you and those around you.

In planning ahead, it’s easier to determine the medical care you prefer, avoid unnecessary stress, pain and spare your loved ones and caregivers the decision making during moments of crisis. You also make it easier and avoid the misunderstanding or disagreements about the choices you would want people to make on your behalf.

Speak to your doctor or nurse today.

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