Without wishing to spoil your holiday, burglaries, accidents and deaths are prevalent over the summer. It's very important to make sure you have adequate insurance cover for your lives and health and also your house, car and possessions but don't overlook other things as well. It's important that someone other than you knows where your important documents are kept and what financial arrangements you have in place so that if you are incapacitated someone can take care of things.

Do you have a safe place where all your important documents are kept, for example, insurance policies, wills, family trust deed, records of any investments, mortgages or loans, birth and marriage certificates, passports etc? If anything happened to you, would someone else know where to find these documents?

Do you and your partner both have wills? Where are they kept? Who else has a copy? Are they up-to-date? If you have married, entered into a de facto relationship, separated, divorced, had children or purchased significant assets (for example a house) or set up a family trust since your will was prepared then it probably needs to be reviewed.

Do you have adequate insurance cover for your personal possessions? Do you understand what exclusions, limitations or conditions you have on your insurance cover and what your excess is? Do you know what to do and who to call if you need to make a claim, especially if you are away from home at the time? Do you have a list of all your possessions, including serial numbers, photos, or some other evidence of what you own?

Do you have adequate life cover? If anything happened to you, would your family be able to maintain their present standard of living and cover your funeral costs. Would your partner have sufficient income to be able to save for his or her retirement as well as supporting the family? How would your partner and family fare if you were to suffer a serious accident or illness and be unable to work again, especially if they had to give up their job in order to look after you? Have you granted enduring powers of attorney to someone so that they can take care of your property and welfare in the event that you are mentally incapacitated through illness or accident? If anything happened to your partner, would you be able to manage your financial affairs? Do you know what your financial position is - how much own, how much you owe, what your living costs are and how much you will need to save for your retirement? Would you be able to draw up a budget and prepare a tax return if required? Do you know who the executor of your partner's will is? If you are the executor, do you know what this involves or who to go to for help?

Chances are that you won't need to know the answers to these questions for a long time, but let's face it - illness, death, divorce and loss are all part of our human existence and something that every one of us will confront, it's just that we don't know when. Adverse events that happen without warning are full of stress and emotion and being on top of the everyday stuff makes dealing with them much easier.

Article by Liz Koh

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