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ALEX ROCA: Hello, and thank you for joining Women Talk Money. My name is Alex Roca, and I will be your host for today's conversation, losing a loved one and planning for the unexpected. We know this is a hard, heavy, emotional topic to talk about, but it's also important that we do. Today with me is Ryan Viktorin. She's the vice president, financial consultant at Fidelity. You may have seen her on another Women Talk Money session. She works with clients every single day to help them make financial plans. And we have Terri Lyders. She's a vice president, advanced planning at Fidelity. She works with Fidelity advisors and their clients to help keep them updated on current gift and estate tax laws and to help them develop plans that are reflective of their goals and objectives. Now to set up today's discussion, I want to think of this topic in two distinct parts. The first being, how can we prepare ourselves and create a plan before something happens? And the second being, what do we do after, logistically, emotionally, and financially? I'm sure you're going to hear us say multiple times throughout today that we know nobody wants to talk about this kind of stuff. But rest assured that you are not alone, and we are here to help. We'll cover a little bit of everything and, of course, share resources for you to continue learning and ways to find additional help. The fact that you're here today, willing to learn is a huge step, and we applaud you for that. And if this is something that you're going through right now or even recently, we are so sorry. And again, we're here to help you. Now, Ryan, let's start with you and talk about the emotional aspect of losing a loved one. How can financial preparedness potentially help in these difficult situations?
RYAN VIKTORIN: Yeah, absolutely, Alex. And you're so right that no one-- I mean, no one even wants to think about this, let alone actually talk about it. So I think it's really important that we are having this discussion today. And, unfortunately, most of us are going to experience this in our life. And statistically, women outlive men by about five years. The kind of odds are that we might be dealing with the loss of a partner or a spouse, in particular. And it's a couple of things for what you just hit. It's really emotional. This entire process of losing someone, especially a partner, which I know we're going to talk about a lot for today. But what I find is because it's such an emotional experience and emotional topic, that when we're in the throes of that moment, it can lead to some impulsive decisions or reactive thinking or reactive decision-making. So I think financial preparedness really helps us get into the proactive space for preparing financially as much as we possibly can so that you can really focus on yourself, your family. And what I always tell my clients is I don't want you to have to worry about money during this time period as much as possible or the logistics. I want you just to be able to focus on the grief. That is really the human aspect of all of it. And so being prepared, while never easy, it just takes a little bit of the pressure off by getting organized and really focusing on getting ready just for the inevitable, but also what if. And then something that's really important that I want to say from the top-- I've seen a couple people in the chat saying, I have to hop off early or for the recording. But this is the most important thing I want this entire group to take away. Like get a pen and write this down. I'll wait for this moment. Like please check your beneficiaries and make sure they are up to date. We'll talk about why later in the conversation, but I cannot convey enough how important that part is. If you take nothing else from this conversation today, it's check the beneficiaries, and make sure they're up to date.
ALEX ROCA: I couldn't agree more with that beneficiary piece. It's also so easy, and you typically only need a little bit of information. As for the plan, it can already be such an emotional time. But having that plan can really give you at least some peace of mind. I know that when I've met with clients in the past, there's always been such a significant difference between financial anxiety between the customer that has the plan and those that didn't. Now, I'm thinking about this conversation from three different perspectives. The first, maybe you haven't started planning yet, and that's OK. The second, maybe you have a plan in place, and you're just looking for some validation, a gut check that things are in a good spot. And the third is there is a plan in place. But maybe you're in the back seat, and you're not as involved with the financial responsibilities as you'd like to be. Or maybe you don't have the time to be. Now whatever your strategy looks like or whatever your situation looks like right now is OK. Start where you are. There's no judgment. So Ryan, coming back over to you and then Terri because I still want to hear what you have to say on this, what are some of the things that we can do to prepare ourselves before something happens?
RYAN VIKTORIN: Yeah. And I've worked with exactly like you were just describing, Alex, a whole spectrum of women, and men, honestly, of course, in the past. And some of my clients are really, really involved in this whole process. And that's one end of the spectrum. And the other are the ones who say, to your point, I don't have time for this, especially for maybe like they're in a partnership or a spouse, and they've got kids. And they're like, listen, divide and conquer. You do this. I'll do that. I'll see you at the end of the day, hopefully. It's OK to divide and conquer. But it's really important to focus on getting organized. And what I always talk about is you want to know where your accounts are, what the accounts are, meaning like, is it a brokerage, is it an IRA, is it a 401(k), and how to access them. That is the starting point of getting organized. It doesn't mean you have to now be an expert on investing and all of that. It's just where is it, what is it, and how do I get access to it is really the like really important place to start. And by the way, everything we're talking about now for yourself, you can also extend to the organization for your kids, for your parents, for your siblings. Like going through it yourself can help in that area as well. And so the other thing to think about in terms of how do you prepare for this-- as much as we want to put this on the to-do list and check it off our list because no one loves crossing off things on a to-do list more than me-- I will literally write down lunch and then cross it off once I've eaten it just to say I'm accomplished for the day. Like I get it. But this is not one of those things that you just check off and you never look at it again. It's a living and breathing process to make sure that you're always prepared no matter what stage of life that you're in. And so making sure that you have this plan to get organized and a process so that you can really know how to check in on it as well really makes some sense. And I know we have a slide up where can get really organized and a good sort of place to start, which I know we can speak to. But getting organized is where I would start with it.
ALEX ROCA: I want to talk here for a moment because at the beginning, I talked about how you could download the presentation. So this is one of those moments where I'm going to encourage you to download that slide so that you can almost use it as a checklist. Now, Terri, can you tell us a little bit about your part in this process and some of the other key players listed there?
TERRI LYDERS: Yeah. So Alex, you did such a fabulous job earlier about talking about the different stages that people are at. My role is to meet them there. So whether someone is thinking about maybe this is spurring people to think, ha, maybe I need to get a plan in place. I'm there to help people understand what the rules are, what the documents are, and what they should be thinking about. For people who have done it-- and I do put that in air quotes because as Ryan said, you're never done. And that's unfortunate. I think kind of like when you buy a car, you don't buy a car once and never buy a new car. You buy a car that makes sense at the time. And then you revise, maybe upgrade or downgrade over time. So for people who have done it, I'm really there to provide a second set of eyes. And then there are people who are in great shape as far as their core estate plan goes. And maybe you're thinking about, well, what do I do next? Whether that's making gifts to charity or making gifts to family members or their specific concerns, I'm there to help them think through those things. And then, unfortunately, I'm there to also help clients who've lost a loved one, whether that's a parent and whether that's a spouse or, gosh, heaven forbid, a child, to help them process it and then help them figure out where to go next. So when you're talking about the estate planning process or what happens in the event that you lose a loved one, there are some really key players that hopefully you've amassed up front before any of those events happen. The first one, of course, being here at Fidelity, we would say one of the key players really should be your financial advisor, like Ryan, your financial professional, so someone in a position that can help you create a plan, both kind of a short term and long term. And then they also work with the mes of the world to connect you with resources. Second, in my profession, we talk a lot about estate planning attorneys. It's not a requirement. You can get documents put in place without the use of an estate planning attorney. But gosh, I'll tell you that there are so many decisions. There are so many different versions of documents. And this is something that you want to get right. It's probably the biggest favor that you can give to your family is to have a well-conceived and well-executed plan so that when something does happen, there's not a bunch of confusion about what's supposed to happen and how it's supposed to happen. So an estate planning attorney can help you draft legal documents, give you advice about estate taxes, and asset protection, and stuff like that, so really key in my world, a really key player. And then also an accountant or a tax professional. So whether that's a CPA or an accountant who can help you not only with income taxes, which a lot of us is our most familiar contact point with those individuals, but also can help you in the estate tax world for those of you who are doing gifting. They have a lot of-- they can provide a lot of sage advice when it comes to taxation. Like Ryan said, beneficiaries. I'm going to pause here also. I want you all now to look down at that note that you took earlier, saying, check your beneficiaries. Now I want you to circle it and maybe put an asterisk by it. So you just want to make sure that all of those are up to date. And some people will choose to let their beneficiaries know that they've been named beneficiaries. That can be a touchy subject because some people think, well, if I tell people and then I change my mind, then how does that work? So you want to think through that carefully, but sometimes it does make it easier if something happens for people to know that they're a beneficiary of a portion of someone's estate. And then support groups, so families, friends, whatever that means to you. Those should be the first people that you reach out to that can really help you with the grieving process and your emotional support. And there's no one way. Maybe that's one person, maybe that's 10 people. But they can play a really crucial role in maybe even helping you communicate. Maybe you don't want to call out to your 50 family members and friends when someone has passed away. But you want to pick one or two key people that can help you with that outreach. So I think having that support network is super important. ALEX ROCA: Absolutely. And thank you for sharing that, Terri. I think it's so important. Now, before we move on to some key documents, Ryan, I'm seeing some questions in the chat around how can someone find these people to establish relationships with. Can you elaborate on that process a little bit?
RYAN VIKTORIN: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I see a lot of awesome questions in the chat. If I'm ever looking away, I'm looking at these questions here that are coming in, which are excellent. So let's break that into those three categories. So a financial professional-- and now I'm speaking how to get somebody a Fidelity, so the mes across the country. I would love to be able to help all of you. It can't just be me. But please don't hesitate to reach out. Follow the group on LinkedIn. Follow us on LinkedIn. Find us on fidelity.com. Of course, you can look outside of Fidelity, but that's what I can speak to at least here. Now, when it comes to an estate planning attorney, we also have a tool-- and I believe we're going to post this in the chat, and it'll be available afterwards-- called the Fidelity estate planner that is an online process. You can see what kind of documents you might need and learn a little bit about it, but also can connect you with local estate planning attorneys in your state, which is really important. And then for a tax professional, the IRS actually has a great tool on their site where you can filter and find someone with the specific qualifications that you might need. And again, I think we're going to post that in our links and in our chat as well. The other thing too is if you have a great relationship with any of these professionals, estate planning attorney or accountant, don't keep it a secret. Like tell your friends. Tell your family. And I'm sure they would appreciate that. But if they're doing a great job, then let people know. On the flip side of that and, in particular, OK, with your financial professional, if you have some of these relationships in place and it's not a great fit, find another one. And again, if it's at Fidelity, reach out. We'll get you somebody new. If that's the case, we won't take it personally. We are here to work with you however you need to be worked with and what's most appropriate for your situation, your financial situation, and the complexities as well. So that's what we're here for.
ALEX ROCA: That's exactly right. This is the person that's going to help you with your money and your plan. You should like working with them. Now let's bring back that slide with the lists for a moment. Terri, I want to bring it back to you. Can you highlight some of the important documents listed here that someone can have in place before something happens, whether it's expected or unexpectedly?
TERRI LYDERS: Yeah. Ryan said something earlier that I want to come back to. This is not a process that you're going to write on today's to-do list and check off. Sometimes it can take-- and I hate to say this. Sometimes it can take months to go through. There's a process of you thinking about what you want to do, connecting with the right professionals, getting draft documents done, reviewing the drafts, signing. That's a process. It takes time. And so let's talk about what some of those documents are. There's really three core documents that I think everyone should have. And when I say everyone, I mean whether you are 18, which is a little aggressive, I know-- very few 18-year-olds that have these documents in place-- all the way up through if you are, 106, which is how old my husband's grandmother was when she passed away was 106. You should have these three core documents in place. So the first one is a will. Most people have heard about a last will and testament. You appoint a personal representative or an executor. Sometimes that's the main document that kind of talks about where your stuff is going to go. And then for those of you with young children, often that document is the document that you name guardians for. So that's the kind of document number one. Wills come into play only though after you pass away. And remember they work in conjunction with beneficiary designations. Or maybe I haven't said this yet. When you've got beneficiaries named on something, those assets do not pass through your will. Beneficiary designations trump which, again, going back to something that Ryan said a little bit earlier-- really important to check those beneficiary designations because if your will says, hey, I want all my assets to go to my spouse and your beneficiary designation that you named 20 years ago before you got married lists your mother, that account is going to go to your mom. So really important to double check those beneficiary designations. The other two documents that I'll mention briefly are what I call-- they're living documents. So they apply while you're alive. The financial power of attorney and then health care powers of attorney, sometimes those health care directives, those documents allow you to legally appoint someone to make your financial decisions and your health care decisions for you. For those of you who are married-- and I was just talking to a young woman yesterday who had this same misconception. If I married, my spouse gets to do that for me. And that's actually not legally true. So if you have a joint account with your spouse, sure, they can participate in that account, but they don't have a legal right to be able to make your medical decisions or even your financial decisions just by stint of being married. We need the powers of attorney and the health care directives to appoint that. So those are the three core documents. In some cases, especially in some states like California, we have an awful probate process, which is really just the process of settling someone's will. You might have a revocable living trust. If you think about most of the dispositive provisions or where does my stuff go provisions come out of the will and get put in that revocable living trust. You still have a will. The will and the revocable trust work in conjunction with each other. But the purpose of the revocable trust really is to avoid that probate process and also has a privacy component. So for some of you, depending on your situation and depending on the state that you live in, you may just have a will. Or you may have a will and a revocable living trust. Just a quick nod to, hey, if you use an estate planning attorney, this is going to cost money. And I get a real common question about how much is it going to cost. And I wish I had an answer for you. And nobody likes this answer. I give it a lot is it depends. It depends on where you live. It depends on how complex your situation is. And it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. One of the funniest things I hear from clients is, hey, I'm married, I don't have kids, I'm really easy. And I put myself in that bucket. I don't have children. But if you look at my estate plan in comparison to someone who's married with kids, a lot of married people with children have a very easy estate plan. Everything to my spouse, and then it's going to go to my kids. Those of us who aren't married have 15 different individuals, 10 different charities. And it's kind of all over the place. So we tend to be a little bit more complicated. So just don't come in with the assumption that no kids, simple because it's not that way. The other thing that you want to make sure of, and I think Ryan talked a little bit about this earlier, is you want to be sure that you've got a consolidated list of accounts, beneficiaries, liabilities and all that stuff. Because if you aren't there and I mean either mentally you're incapacitated, or physically aren't there, someone needs to know where all your stuff is and what you own. And the more you can be organized, the easier you're going to make it on the people who have to come in behind you and pick up where you left off. And be sure that you're thinking about life insurance policies as well as employer benefits because sometimes it's going to get left out of the mix. And then the last thing is really optional, but I think is probably equally important, which is really a letter of instruction. And I call this a in case of death, open here, open now. Sometimes we keep that in the drawer by your refrigerator. Some people post it on their refrigerator. But it's really a who should people call. Who's your advisor? Who's your financial advisor? Who's your estate planning attorney/ Who's your CPA? Who should they call in case something happens? And then do you have specific wishes for your memorial because that happens pretty fast? And that can sometimes happen before people even find your estate planning documents. And then probably most important, like where's the money buried in the backyard? I say that jokingly. Or which mattress is it under? One thing that I will say is none of this replaces having a conversation with the people that are especially named to the different roles, whether it's a personal representative, or an executor, an agent under a power of attorney, or a trustee. You want to be sure that they know where the documents are, You want to be sure that they know what roles they're going to act in and what your wishes are. And it's much better to know in advance if they are unwilling to do that because you can't force anyone into those roles.
ALEX ROCA: Ooh. That was a lot of information to just think about having to get all of that organized and then to have it accessible as well. It's also really personal information that we don't want laying around. Ryan, do you have any recommendations on how or where to store these important pieces safely and who should have access to them as well?
RYAN VIKTORIN: Yeah, I get this question a lot. And we have something called FidSafe. And again, I think we're going to post it in here. It's a secure digital storage space, which doesn't work for everything you have. But for a lot of it, it really does. And it's not actually just a storage space, it's also a bit of an educational resource. So there are checklists in here similar to the ones you've seen in this chat. They're interactive PDFs that can help you figure out where you're at so there's no guesswork around what you need to include or not include, things like that. And they're broken into categories that's easier to digest. And you can break up everything that Terri's talking about in snippets, which is a bit easier to understand. And by the way, one thing I really feel like I have to mention is we're going through this information at a clip. And I think I saw in the chat, how do we access other conversations? We have a whole Women Talk Money just on estate planning, just that one piece of preparing for a loved one. So there are other resources on the YouTube channel that you can also find. And then one other thing that I forgot to say, the FidSafe is free. So it doesn't cost anything for that digital resource. And the other thing I'm seeing in the chat is things like how do I get my parents organized for this? How do I convince my spouse to do this? This is one way to do it, to have them get this resource to try to consolidate things. Sometimes it's just like a landing place to start the conversation. So those are tough bridges to cross sometimes. But it's a good resource, at least digitally. Terri, I don't know if you have anything to add.
TERRI LYDERS: Yeah, I love FidSafe. And it even allows you to name like other people that can have access to it now or maybe they only have access to it after you pass away. Go to the website, just look at it. There's so many different options and clients who use it I know love it. The one thing I will say is it doesn't replace the need for you to have originals of your documents, especially your wills. So you're going to need to think about some place to keep those. Sometimes attorneys will keep those original documents, although they're really moving away from doing that. And that can cause-- if you did your documents 20 years ago and you left them with your attorney and they retired, now you're like, I don't know where the documents are. Some people choose to keep them in a safe, like a fireproof safe. I know those of us in California keeping things in a fireproof safe is kind of near and dear to our heart. Just be sure someone has the combination to that safe. My estate planning attorney told me to keep it on my bookshelf. If something happens and the house goes down, we can always go and re-execute those documents, assuming we, of course, survive the event. Yeah. So I think that's all I wanted to say. Oh, funny story, some people keep them in their freezer. The estate planning binders can be big. If you've got like we do a big stand-alone freezer in the garage, you could throw it in there. Again, you just want to make sure someone knows where it is because most people aren't going to choose to look in a freezer for some estate planning documents. But in all honesty, the reason they do that is because freezers are the last place to burn. And it's not someplace that's out like easily accessible. So I'm not sure that that would be an attorney's first recommendation for where to keep stuff, but certainly an option.
ALEX ROCA: Something to think about. All right, well, that brings us to our last column, the to-dos. So Terri, this is going to be a two-part question for you. Seeing as a lot of this is logistical, which we may not be thinking about in a time of grieving, what are the most important steps someone can take after losing a loved one? And is there any insight you can share on timing?
TERRI LYDERS: Yeah. So take the time for yourself to grieve. And I know we keep saying this, but I've had clients that say, I don't want to think about any of this stuff for months. I have other clients that like two or three days after the loss are calling and saying, that's the way they process and handle it. They need to get going on stuff. You're going to have your own process. The immediate thing is usually people are going to work on getting the death certificate. Sometimes the funeral home or the memorial place will assist you with getting those. Sometimes you need to reach out to your county clerk to do that. You want to be sure that you're making arrangements for any dependents and pets right away. You want to be sure that their needs are being taken care of. Informing family and friends comes hand in hand with that. And again, that letter of instruction that I mentioned earlier, we may all think, oh, of course, I know who to reach out to if something happens to my spouse. But when you're in the midst of grief, sometimes your brain isn't processing things the same way, and it can be hard to even just think about who do I talk to. So that letter of instruction can be really important, not only for other people but for yourself. You want to be sure you're gathering your important documents, hopefully so that if something does happen, you just pull that notebook out. And you've got it all there. But you want to be sure and gathering the wills, and the trusts, insurance policies, and all that stuff. Within about two weeks, you do want to reach out to Social Security, Medicare. If your loved one was employed, you want to reach out to their employer. As it relates to Social Security, you might be eligible for survivor benefits. And that stuff is not automatic. Life insurance companies need to be notified. There's a process in order for death benefits to pay out. And then, of course, employers need to be notified. And there may be benefits that are available through your deceased person, your loved one's employer that can help financially Ease some of the burdens. And, of course, you want to reach out to your banks and your financial institutions, your Ryan's. They can be extremely helpful in figuring out what next steps are from an account titling and beneficiary designation. And then, of course, you want to reach out hopefully to the estate planning attorney that you've used. Although keep in mind that the estate planning attorney that drafted the documents doesn't have to be the person that you reach out to actually help you execute on the documents. So maybe you got the documents put in place, but you're like, oh, I don't want to work with that person. I need someone different. Don't hesitate to reach out to a different estate planning attorney, and you can bring the documents to them. ALEX ROCA: Again, such great information that you just shared with us and so many things to think about. In fact, you have me thinking about my Cleo and who would feed her if anything was to happen to me. We think so much about the people in our lives, but what about the pets in our lives? There's actually a really great checklist that Fidelity has created with a lot of practical steps, just like the ones Terri was sharing so that we are actually going to share that link in the chat now. And you can download the PDF and save it for later. Now, we've talked about a lot so far. And we know that this stuff is heavy, but I just want to reiterate that you're not alone and that we are here to help. So Ryan and Terri, this question is for both of you. Let's start with Ryan. What are some of the common financial missteps people face when a loved one passes away? And more importantly, how can we help avoid them?
RYAN VIKTORIN: OK, so I guess I would say the missteps that I see the most are like people not doing everything we've talked about up until this point. But I'm going to highlight this with a couple of client stories that I've got because I think it sort of brings it to light. And I'm going back to the beneficiaries. So we've now written it down, we've circled it, we've asterisk it. We're going to double underline it. Like it is the thing to make sure that it's the thing that we do. But I need to reiterate this with a story. I had a client who I worked with the husband most. He kind of was the one that did most of the investing. And we had a lot of conversations. And his wife was not particularly involved because she was a doctor, and she just didn't have time to be involved. And then they come to me, and he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, unfortunately, kind of early, like in his 70s, early 70s. And he had his employer plan through his work. He had his stock plan through his work in another spot. And they've got the Fidelity account. So before we even proceeded with anything, I said, time out, we're checking your beneficiaries, which I do like every time I talk to a client. I'm looking at their beneficiaries to make sure it's correct. And bothering them if they're not. I will bother you till the end of time until you update your beneficiaries correctly. So his Fidelity accounts were OK. The stock plan account was OK. But he never updated his beneficiaries on his employer plan. He then passed away in 2020. She did not get the money until 2024, four years to get the money into her name, multiple court experiences through what's called the probate process, like Terri mentioned, and thousands of dollars spent on lawyers and this entire process, not to mention the headache and the stress of having that. So all avoided by making sure the beneficiaries are up to date. So it's so important. That's why we keep saying it. The other misstep I see is that sometimes estate plans, even financial plans, but estate plans, in particular, get stale. I have another client who has four children and wrote an estate plan. And when we looked at his beneficiaries when I met him for the first time and when he looked at his trust, he was missing a kid. He had one whole kid was not part of this entire estate plan. And so sometimes it just gets stale. And so making sure that it's updated and keeping that top of mind is a really big deal. But I also see people make the decision of who's going to be left in charge. And it's, oh, it's just going to be my oldest kid. And sometimes that's not the right person. Sometimes it's appropriate when the oldest child is 18 because they're the legal adult and there's younger kids. But as time goes on, and my clients get into their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and their kids are now 40, 50, 60 years old, it might develop that a different kid or a different person might make some more sense to be the executor or the trustee or things like that. So constantly trying to think about who the best person is that would help if something were to happen to you, I think, is really important. And just assuming that that person is OK with doing it-- having a conversation with them and making sure that they're prepared for it, I think, is really, really important. And then the other thing that I've seen-- and this is the last thing I'll say, and then I'll turn it to Terri is what she mentioned before about the cost of a attorney. It's not cheap to have an estate planning attorney, right, Terri? So it will cost something to have this whole thing set up. And sometimes my clients are really focused on that. They see that almost like a sticker shock sometimes a little bit, depending on the situation. And they say, I'm just going to be organized. And I'll give you another client story. Client who actually had pretty significant assets. I was meeting with him. And I said, if something happened to you, what happens for your wife? And he said, no, no, I have it all organized. I have a whole plan for her. And I was like, perfect. You've met with an estate planning attorney. You have trusts, wills, power of attorney. And he goes, no, it's just here. And it was literally on a piece of paper written in pencil. And what I wanted to say was give me that paper. Useless. Maybe we're getting organized. But at the same time, it is not nearly enough. And the cost to not working with an attorney or getting organized or really making sure things are buttoned up more so than the yellow legal pad that we can write on can be 10 times what it might cost to actually work with an attorney. But Terri, if you have anything to add, any other stories that you have to say because I know it's an overwhelming process and lengthy process.
TERRI LYDERS: Yeah. And I've been doing this for more than 30 years. I started when I was five. And I've seen all that, all of it. I have to laugh after a while because you want people to be prepared. But there's so many decisions that get made that it can paralyze people. And so one of the things that-- I think it goes don't let perfect be the enemy of good. And what I mean by that is-- I just had a client meeting yesterday where they executed their documents. I had started talking to them back in 2019 about this. So we are now six years into this process. And the spouses had some pretty big differences of opinion on what they wanted to have happen with their documents at the beginning. So they had to work through that and figure out how they were going to manage that. Then they started getting stuck in the little details. Like OK, well, we know who we're going to put in first place. But gosh, what if that person can't do it? Then who's going to be the second? What if they can't? Who's going to be the third? And what's the succession going to be? And well, we're going to do this today. Get as much down as you can. If you can only think about the first role, the first position in each role, get the document done. You can always come back to it and refine it, add to it. I hesitate to say fix it because it shouldn't be broken in the first place. But you can always refine it later. As Ryan said, if you don't have something in place, the consequences can be severe. And it is one of the biggest disservices you can do to your loved ones. If you don't have a power of attorney in place and someone needs to step in and start manage your financial affairs, they have to go to court and open up some sort of guardianship or conservatorship process, which is court overseen. So much easier if you've got a power of attorney that says, hey, here's the person that I want. And then they can move on with helping you with those documents. The second thing I'll mention because I know we're running short on time here, is don't move too fast. So I mentioned earlier that some people's initial instinct is, OK, someone's passed away. Now I need to change account titling, and I need to make sure that all this stuff-- for me, it was actually when my mom passed away. I was going through her jewelry. And I ended up giving away some jewelry that two or three months later or even to this day, I'm like, I wish I hadn't done that. Take some time to process it. And make sure you understand what the estate plan says before you go and change account titling. And then, again, ask for help. Reach out to your Ryan. Reach out to your estate planning attorney so that you can make sure that you understand what the intent was behind the plan, what the plan actually says before you start to pull the trigger on things that you can't take back.
ALEX ROCA: No, that's fair. And I would say it sounds make sure you have a plan on the front end and make sure you take a little bit of time on the back end after something's happened. I think this is fabulous advice. And, Terri, you're so right that estate planning is a huge topic. And we've barely touched the surface today. Ryan mentioned this earlier on the conversation, if you're interested in learning more about estate planning. Women Talk Money did an entire session just like this one on estate planning back in November. We're going to have that link on the chat now. And you can always find it on our YouTube channel. Now, Ryan, we're close to time, but I really want to cover this because I know you've been looking at the chat just like I have. And following up on the first misstep that you shared, there are a few questions being asked on how often someone should be checking in on their estate plan or financial plan. What's the quick answer there?
RYAN VIKTORIN: So a life event or every five years. What's a life event? So a marriage, a death. Wait, somebody has a baby, somebody gets divorced, you move states. I saw one of the questions and, hey, I have an estate plan, but I moved states. If you move, you should relook at it. Every five years tends to catch that, but also if there's a major tax code change, which was relevant this year as we saw a bill that just passed through. So that's the quick answer.
ALEX ROCA: I love that answer. Thank you. And then building on something that you mentioned earlier, you worked with women who have a range of involvement in their household finances. If someone hasn't been involved in that process and feels overwhelmed getting started, how can they begin to take control and feel more confident with their financial decisions?
RYAN VIKTORIN: To keep this one really, really quick, but I do work with lots of different types of clients, like I said. And oftentimes, there's this perception that, oh, my spouse does this. They don't want me involved. They're handling it. More often than not, when I'm talking to the one half of a partnership that's really involved in the finances, and I say, if something were to happen to you, how would your spouse handle this, that client who is actually really involved is very concerned that their spouse isn't involved. So it's just starting to have the conversation and saying, hey, if something were to happen to you, I want to know where things are, what they are, and how to access them. How do we start to get organized? And lean on the mes of the world. We can be the third party. We can be mediator or psychologist or marriage counselor, whatever version you need us to be in this situation. But at least knowing who that person is, I think, is a huge part of the battle. So it's just leaning into it. And it could focus on the organization of it rather than all the nitty gritty of the investments.
ALEX ROCA: Yeah, that's fair. And to Terri's point, it doesn't have to be perfect. You just have to start. Ryan, Terri, this was wonderful. Thank you so much for chatting with me and for all of the great information that you've shared. We're going to put a slide up that has all of our upcoming events and a reminder of how else you can get help. You can also click on that green button that Ryan referenced earlier at the bottom of your screen to schedule a call with Fidelity. To all of you watching, thank you for joining. Remember to look at your beneficiaries. And we'll hopefully see you again next month. Have a great day.